Make it everlasting
by villalala
Summary: One day Hiccup meets the winter spirit Jack Frost, and the two of them become inseparable. Problem is, Jack is immortal and Hiccup isn't, so Jack turns to The Man in the Moon. Modern AU, HiJack
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own ROTG or HTTYD

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_**Chapter 1 - Looking for things that exist, running into a spirit**_

"Outrageous!"

"W-why?"

Hiccup was standing in the classroom, hoping that someone would save him from his art teacher, Pitch, but everyone else had gone home already and Hiccup was all alone. Pitch was holding a notebook in front of his student's face, his face full of rage. Then he moved it close to his chest, his glasses on his nose, looking like they would fall off any second, and flipped the pages, stopping every now and then and showing Hiccup the sketches that where drawn there.

"What is this? Tell me, Haddock!" Pitch snapped. Hiccup looked at the sketch that was currently being held in front of his eyes by his teacher. It represented a really quick sketch of a dragon –Hiccup remembered that he had drawn it during lunch break while waiting for Astrid, his friend, to be finished with food.

"A dragon, sir", Hiccup answered and waited as Pitch flipped the pages again and then showed another sketch.

"What about this?"

"A dragon, sir." Pitch nodded and tossed the notebook across the room, earning a slightly shocked look from Hiccup. The boy was about to go after his drawings (some of the pages had loosened from the notebook during its little flight) when Pitch stopped him by starting to nag at him.

"Dragons! Dragons fucking everywhere, that's all I can see!"

"B-but sir, that's my sketchbook. The drawings I've had to do during this course are in my-"

"I know that!" Pitch yelled and hit his table with his fist, making his glass of water to fall over and Hiccup to jump up a bit from shock, "I know you have done a marvelous job with the tasks." Hiccup was about to sigh in relief; maybe he would get away from this. But then Pitch opened his mouth again. "But these fantasy drawings will eat your brain!"

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked, looking at his feet. This wasn't the first time Pitch yelled at him about how Hiccup drew dragons and fairies and things like that whenever he had the chance.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock (a great name, right?), 15 years old boy with brown hair and shiny green eyes and who had freckles all over him, was a student in an art school. He was the best in his class, always earning praises from his teachers. He had a great eye for art, but he also had a weak spot; fantasy. That didn't please Pitch, who was teaching most of the classes, much to Hiccup's disappointment. Pitch always told Hiccup to focus on actual art and to try find the "inner him", like Pitch called it, and to stop drawing kids' stuff.

Pitch rubbed his temples and then waved his hand, his eyes closed and eyebrows frowned. "Go out! Spend time with people! Wander in the nature! Draw people and animals and trees; things that actually exist! And for God's sake take that notebook out of my sight before I burn it!"

Hiccup quickly ran over to where his sketches were lying on the floor, picking them and his notebook up and stuffed them into his bag. Pitch watched him the whole time, talking.

"Darling, you really need to stop drawing those creatures. You'll end up painting pictures for children's books." Hiccup swallowed. Every single person in the school knew that when Pitch called someone "darling", the situation was dead serious and whoever, who didn't do as the teacher told them, would end up in big trouble.

"Yes, sir." And with that, Pitch gave the student who standing in the middle of the class room, his hands in his sides, nervously sweating, a nod as a sign that Hiccup was allowed to leave now. Said boy practically flew out of the class, running down the hallway. Once he reached the front door, he slowed down so that he was walking, and took out his phone from his jean's pocket, dialing Astrid's number. The phone let him wait that long that when Astrid finally answered, Hiccup was already in a forest that was nearby his school –if Pitch wanted him to draw trees then fine, he would.

"_Wow, you're alive"_, was the first thing Astrid said when she picked up. Astrid had been in the same class with Hiccup when Pitch had told him to stay. Astrid had wanted to wait for her friend, but the black haired man had told her to go away. Hiccup sighed.

"Well, barely. Pitch yelled at me for good 25 minutes and threw my notebook across the classroom."

"_The usual sermon again?"_

"Yeah. I'm in the forest right now, looking for the perfect tree that I could draw and that would bring some sort of pleasure to Pit-aaah!"

Hiccup was cut off when he slipped on ice and landed on his ass, hissing in pain.

"_Hiccup?"_ Astrid called from the other end.

"I'm fine…" Hiccup mumbled as he stumbled to stand on his feet, "I just slipped- on ice?" he said and looked at the little area of ice that was under his feet.

"_Hiccup, it's April and there hasn't been snow in here since December. Are you sure it's ice?"_

"I just slipped on it, so yeah, I think it's ice." Hiccup could basically hear Astrid shrug.

"_Well, you never know. Anyways, I have to go, have fun with the trees!"_

"Sure will." And then Astrid hang up, leaving Hiccup to stare at the ice in confusion just by himself. He went down to his knees and touched the ground with his hand. It was cold, it was slippery, and yep, it definitely was ice. Hiccup didn't really know what to think, because the little spots of ice continued deeper into the forest. Every spot was identical with each other; every single one of them was not so huge, and they were in a quite straight line. How odd, Hiccup thought and followed the trail. Was this some sort of prank? And if it was, who was behind it?

Hiccup counted that there were exactly twelve of the icy spots before they stopped. He was standing near an open spot in the forest (a place where loving couples usually went to have romantic picnics during summer), and saw a boy in the middle of it. The boy was around Hiccup's age, he had white hair and didn't wear any shoes, which Hiccup found really weird. He was waving a staff of some kind and- was he frosting the little pond that was there or were Hiccup's eyes just playing tricks on him?

Hiccup swallowed his fear and stepped to the open place, putting his hand to rest on the side of a tree to get some balance –he was scared that any minute he would slip again (his ass wouldn't take that), clearing his throat to call for the boy.

"E-excuse me?" the boy immediately turned his eyes from the pond to the boy coming from the woods, "Do you know what- Hey!" Once again Hiccup was cut off in the middle of a sentence; the boy had pointed his staff at Hiccup, and a bunch of blue, glowing pieces of ice had flew through the air, hitting the tree Hiccup's hand was on. Obviously the attack was an accident, Hiccup could tell that because the boy quickly put his staff down and hold his other hand up to tell Hiccup that he meant no harm to the other.

"Don't scare me like that, I almost froze you!" he called and –much to Hiccup's surprise- flew to him, landing right in front of him and staring at the boy with his blue eyes. "You-" the boy didn't finish, he just reached out his hand to touch Hiccup's cheek. Hiccup was too astonished by the fact that the boy had flied to slap the other's hand away. "You can see me?"

"W-what?" Hiccup finally realized that the boy had asked. See him? Of course he could see him, he wasn't blind.

"You can see me!" the weird boy sang and stepped back, smiling, his gaze never leaving Hiccup. "That's amazing!"

"What?" Hiccup repeated. He was so confused, you have no idea. He didn't know what to say or do, the other male was acting so strange that Hiccup was sure he was dreaming this whole situation. Humans can't fly!

"What's you name, kid? Oh my God this is fucking great! I can't believe this!" and then the boy stepped closer again, pulling Hiccup into a thigh hug, running his fingers through the other's brown hair and other hand on his back, pressing him as close as possible. Hiccup just stood there, unsure what to do. Finally, when the boy didn't seem to let go, Hiccup's brain clicked and told him that there was a flying stranger hugging him, so he pushed the white haired boy away, staring at him in confusion once he wasn't pressed up against him.

"Who are you?"

"They call me Jack", the boy shrugged. Jack, huh. Well, okay.

"You flew?"

"I did."

Hiccup was getting slightly irritated. Didn't Jack understand his hint of "please tell me how did you fly just like that and are you the one freezing the ground". Jack just grinned and patted Hiccup's freckled cheek.

"I suppose you noticed the ice?"

"I slipped on it", Hiccup said, annoyed. He had forgotten how much his butt hurt, but now he remembered again and he really, really wanted to go home and fall asleep, pretending that this never happened.

Jack laughed and rolled his staff around in his hand. "Oops, sorry about that", he smirked and pointed the staff at Hiccup's feet, turning the ground he was standing on into ice. Hiccup jumped aside, staring at the ground. Jack laughed again.

"Actually my full name is Jack Frost and you never answered my question of what's your name."

Jack Frost? Hiccup stared at the boy. Jack Frost? Like, that Jack Frost that was kind of a fairy? That Jack Frost who could turn things into pure ice? That Jack Frost Hiccup's father had read stories about to Hiccup? _That_ Jack Frost?

"You're spacing out." Hiccup blinked. Had he been staring at the boy standing before him the whole time? He wasn't sure, he was so confused that he couldn't even tell if he had been there for minutes or for hours.

"I'm…my name is Hiccup." Jack smirked a bit and looked at Hiccup.

"Hiccup, huh? That's one funny name", he smiled and then created a snowball in his hands, giving it to Hiccup who took it to his own hand, staring at it, the whole being of his being just one, big question mark, "How about we have some fun, Hic?"

First of all, why was Jack already giving Hiccup a nickname? And then, what did he mean 'some fun'? "What do you mean?" Jack just smiled a foxy smile and flew backwards to the other side of the open spot in the forest they were standing in, creating about twenty snowballs to himself.

"My arsenal against your single snowball, let's see if you can hit me." Hiccup couldn't believe it. Pitch had told him to go wander in the nature and draw things that exist, so Hiccup had went to the forest, but instead of seeing a deer or something regular like that, he bumped into Jack Frost who seemed to be super-happy about the fact that Hiccup could see him. And now this creature was asking him to have a snowball fight with him in the middle of spring when there was no snow to be seen anywhere.

Suddenly a snowball hit Hiccup's right shoulder, making him stumble backwards a few steps. Now, if something was fair, that wasn't it! Hiccup stared at Jack who had created an icy shield for himself, hiding behind it.

"H-hey!" Hiccup called. Another snowball flew across the air, landing only few inches away from Hiccup. He sighed and looked at the snowball he was holding. Well, if this was the only way to prove himself that this was no dream…

Hiccup quietly backed off into the woods, making his way towards Jack's little hideout behind the trees. In the meanwhile Jack had noticed Hiccup disappearing, and now he was peeking from the right side of the ice wall, trying to see where the other had went to. Hiccup, however, was sneaking to the winter spirit from his left, trying to move as quietly as possible. And, surprisingly for himself, Hiccup found this funny. He didn't have snowball fights that often because the city had snow in it only between November and December, and all his friends said that they were too old for kids' play plus the teachers didn't approve such things during school time and parents didn't allow such things during the teens' time at home (not that Hiccup lived at home anymore, mind you).

Hiccup finally made his way to Jack just to find out that he wasn't there anymore. The boy looked around him, trying to figure where Jack would be. Suddenly a huge mass of snow landed on top of him from the above, making him fall to the ground, the snow covering him. He had a hard time digging his body out of there, while Jack was balancing himself on top of his staff, laughing like crazy next to him. Hiccup's snowball had broken, so it was obvious for Jack that he had won.

"Wanna go again? I could give you a chance of a rematch", he chirped and looked at Hiccup while the boy tried to get his school bag out of the snow.

"Actually, I have homework to do", he said and sighed when he remembered Pitch's little "detention" he had given to Hiccup.

Jack just nodded and landed to his feet from his staff, grabbing it. "Okay, let's go then."

What? Hiccup looked at the boy in shock. What did he mean "let's go"? There's no way the spirit would come with him!

"Uh…I meant that _I_ have homework to do. Alone."

Well okay, maybe Hiccup was being too harsh. Jack looked like a puppy that was being told not to drink from the toilet, and Hiccup immediately wanted to take his words back. He didn't mean to sound that mean! But, he couldn't unsay what had been said, so he just mumbled "I had fun" to the boy and started walking towards the school. You see, Hiccup lived in a dorm that was near the school, and even though his apartment was quite small, it had its good sides; it was close to the school and Hiccup could live alone, meaning that his father wasn't there (it's not that Hiccup didn't like his father, but the man was a bit…hard with the fact that Hiccup wasn't dating Astrid, even though Hiccup had said many times that he liked boys. His dad always told him that Astrid would be the perfect wife and blabla, he never really had accepted that his son wasn't into sports and girls and beer.)

But, of course, the dorm also had negative things Hiccup wanted to complain about; pets weren't allowed, so Hiccup had had to clean up every single toilet in the school with a toothbrush to get his cat Toothless to live with him. The whole cleaning up was Pitch's idea –surprise, surprise.

Anyways, he walked through the forest and just when he saw the school's roof over the trees, he heard a snort behind his back, making him jump up from surprise.

"That's your school? Looks like a prison", the voice said. Hiccup turned around just to see Jack walking right behind him, staring at the school.

"Jack!"

"Hiccup!" Jack grinned and looked at the other boy. "Sup?"

"Don't follow me!"

"Why not?"

"I- You- That's not-"

"No one else can see me, I'm pretty sure of that, if that's what you're concerned about, so…I can come with you."

"What do you mean no one else can see you?"

"It's all up to if you believe in me or not. Most people don't. You do, it seems like, so…"

"So you just thought you can come with me, just like that?"

"Well yeah, like I said, no one can see me so it's as if I wasn't even there with you."

And, sadly or not, Hiccup didn't find anything to say about that, so he just rolled his eyes and turned back around to continue his trip to the dorm, Jack walking right on his heels.

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"Can't you just fly back into the forest or something?"

"No way!"

Yes, there indeed was a mysterious creature who they referred to as "Jack Frost" in children's' books, right in Hiccup's small living room, digging through Hiccup's stuff. Toothless wasn't really sure what to think of the boy, and Hiccup knew how the cat felt; he wasn't sure about it either. Was this a dream or not, that's what Hiccup had thought about ever since he met Jack (so for about 2 hours), but the more Jack laughed and looked at his stuff, the more it all seemed to be way too real.

"Who's that?" Jack was looking at a picture of Hiccup and Astrid; a picture that Hiccup had taken at the end of last summer, just before their first year in the art school, and had put it to his shelf. Jack took the picture to his hands, lightly running his fingers over it in silence.

"Oh, her? She's Astrid", Hiccup said and went to Jack (while Jack had been searching Hiccup's movies and books, Hiccup had been sitting on the couch), taking a look at his and Astrid's smiling faces. Astrid, as always, looked beautiful and Hiccup, like many years before the picture was taken and even now, had freckles in his face.

"Your girlfriend?" Hiccup couldn't really tell if Jack was joking with the question or not, but he still huffed and took the picture from Jack, placing it back to its spot in the shelf.

"No." Jack whistled and poked Hiccup's side.

"You sure?"

"Uh, yeah?" Well yeah, maybe Hiccup had had a crush in Astrid in, like, kindergarten, but that was a long, long time ago. They had never dated and, besides, the crush hadn't lasted for that long. They had always been best friends, and they were that now. Astrid knew about Hiccup's interest in boys –she even had said that she will put Hiccup to a date- and was totally okay with it.

While Hiccup was looking at the photo and thinking about all the silly stuff he and Astrid had done over the years, Jack had walked over to Toothless who was sleeping on the couch. Jack gently scratched the cat's back, making him stretch in joy. Hiccup was pretty sure that Toothless was that calm only because he was only half awake; usually Toothless took time before accepting anyone who was new to him -even Astrid had had to fight for the cat not to bite her every time they saw.

As he was scratching the black cat, the winter spirit decided that, even though it was already the start of the evening, he should stay with his new friend. Hiccup, on the other hand, didn't feel so happy about this, and he kept telling Jack to go away. Jack just smirked and went to look over the apartment's windows, earning a very questionable stare from Hiccup.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to check if I can get in and out from your windows. It's easier than using the door, you know?"

"What do you mean 'in and out'?" Jack went to Hiccup's bedroom and placed his staff to rest against the wall, walking to the window and opening it.

"Great!"

Hiccup was confused. Was the guy about to use his bedroom window as if it was a door, just like that? "You're not coming in from there!"

"Why not?"

"What if I'm at school when you come?"

"Then I'll wait for you."

"What if I'm sleeping when you come here?" Hiccup was praying that such thing would never happen. It would be too weird.

"Then I'll watch you sleep and hold you if you have nightmares." Hiccup took a pillow to his hands and threw it at Jack, who just laughed.

"That's creepy."

"But you can't stop me", Jack grinned, taking a good look at the window, "there's no lock on this, and it can also be opened from the outside." Jack almost sang the whole sentence as if he just had won something big. Hiccup shivered. Ugh, the boy was crazy! Why had he even ran up to him in the forest? The world must have hated him that moment.

"Well, okay, you win", Hiccup finally said, feeling very defeated, "but don't destroy the places if I'm not here when you arrive. And please don't do anything stupid or everyone will blame me."

"Sure thing." Hiccup laid down to his bed. God, he was exhausted. And he still hadn't drawn anything "that actually existed", he remembered. The boy sighed and closed his eyes, imagining Pitch telling him that he should focus, focus, focus.

Then he heard footsteps as Jack went to take his staff and then walking to Hiccup's bed, poking the poor boy. "Hey, how about we go have another snowball fight?"

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**A/N: **I swear I write too much modern AUs...oh well. Also I'm trying my best to write those "all fun and games" -fics, but I have the feeling this fic is going to be a real drama queen *cough*

Idk I can totally imagine Pitch as an art teacher.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Kind of a side story, kind of not. What do I mean? You'll eventually find out.

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_**Chapter 2 – Easter eggs**_

Hiccup was violently dragged back to Earth from his thoughts when his phone started to ring, filling the apartment with music. Toothless rose his head a bit but then went back to sleep, being a lazy cat that he is. Hiccup sighed and turned his chair to get up, but Jack was already standing next to him, holding the brunette's phone in his pale hand, offering it to Hiccup.

"It's your dad."

Hiccup rolled his eyes and took the phone, answering the call by putting it on loudspeaker so that he could continue his work with his homework –Pitch was still angry with him about the fact that he hadn't started to draw "real things", even though he had given him that task two weeks ago.

"Hi, dad." Hiccup watched Jack take his sketchbook from the drawer of his desk, sitting down behind him on the floor, looking over the drawings. Hiccup immediately got distracted because of this; whenever he knew that someone was staring at his work of art, he felt himself blushing and getting nervous.

"Hiccup, my son!" answered a man's voice from the other end of the phone, making said son to turn his mind from Jack to the call he was having. Hiccup continued to sketch a flower –he felt stupid to do so, but Pitch had told him to "start with baby steps", so there he was, drawing a simple flower instead of continuing his drawing of a huge, black dragon he had been working on lately, whenever he had free time.

Hiccup heard Jack snort behind him and flip the pages of his sketchbook, and he felt unsure whether it had been a good snort or a bad snort. But Hiccup was too focused on the flower to care that much that he would turn around and ask the white haired boy what he was snorting at.

"When are you coming to see your old father, Hiccup?" Stoick, Hiccup's father that was now speaking to him, asked.

"Don't know, dad. I'm quite busy with school."

"But you do have time to see Astrid, right?" Hiccup's eye twitched a bit as he put his pencil down and looked at the phone in disbelief. Don't tell that Stoick was still hoping for Astrid and Hiccup to get together.

"Yes, dad."

"Great, I-"

"But not like that."

There was a silence which was broken as Hiccup continued to draw, now placing a new paper in front of him, starting to draw the lines of a tree, the room filling up with the sound of a pencil moving on paper. He heard his father's heavy breath as the man seemed to wonder what to say.

"Have you gotten any new friends, Hiccup?" Ah, the same question that his father gave him every single time they talked. His father seemed to be worried about Hiccup having only one friend. Said boy was about to say 'no' when he remembered Jack; the boy was maybe invisible to everyone else, but Hiccup saw him and they spent time together, so that counted as a friend, right?

"One."

He could practically hear Stoick's smile. "Good, good! Who is she?"

Oh my God, Stoick automatically thought that Hiccup's new friend was a girl –as a father of a gay guy, Stoick hoped that Hiccup could get friends that were girls and that would make the boy realize how beautiful girls were; of course Hiccup appreciated the beauty of the opposite sex, but he didn't find the girls beautiful like _that_. "His name is Jack, dad." This is when Jack stood up and moved next to the desk, sitting down on the edge of it, grinning at Hiccup. Hiccup looked back at him, sticking out his tongue before returning to the black and white tree.

Stoick gave a sigh. "Okay. How old is he?"

Over 300 years, could Hiccup have answered if he had spoken the truth. But of course he couldn't say that, so he just said "Around seventeen."

"Around?"

"Does it matter, dad?"

"As long as he isn't _old_."

"Dad."

"Yes, yes, okay, I'm sorry."

Once again there was a silence, or at least Stoick thought so, but actually it wasn't silent in Hiccup's room as Jack started talking.

"Why is he asking about my age?" Hiccup just simply shrugged and put his full focus on the tree. It started to look good, but Hiccup wasn't satisfied. He wanted to draw an actual landscape with fairies and- oops, here we go again. Hiccup shook his head and closed his eyes. Focus, he told himself, or Pitch will put you in detention.

"Hiccup?" Stoick called for his son. Hiccup's eyes shot open as he remembered that his father was still hanging on the line.

"Yeah?"

"You won't", the man kept a pause before continuing, "do things with him, right?" he mumbled.

"Dad!" Hiccup whined, rubbing his temples. Gods, what was with this man?

"I'm just making sure!" Jack tilted his head and gave the other teen a questionable look which make Hiccup blush. Jeez, his father couldn't have picked a more embarrassing moment?

"I have to do my homework, dad."

"Okay. Remember to call me more often, Hiccup. It's lonely here."

"I will."

"That's my boy! And would you go to a football team and start playing sports? It would be good for your-"

"Good bye, dad."

Stoick gave the boy another long sigh. "Bye, son."

Hiccup closed the phone and tossed it over his shoulder so it landed on his bed and then banged his head against the desk. Well, that had been like all the previous times Stoick called Hiccup. First he asked about Astrid, then if Hiccup had gotten any new friends or not and then if Hiccup could start playing a sport of some sort. And each time Hiccup just whished for his father to understand that he didn't like Astrid like that, he wouldn't make any new friends –if Jack didn't count- and that he liked art more than sports.

The boy felt a finger tap his shoulder and lifted his eyes to Jack who was staring at him, grinning.

"What was that about?"

"What?"

"'Do things with him'?" Hiccup blushed furiously. Yup, his dad had come up with a thought that since his son was gay, said boy would gave sex with every male that walked past him.

"Um, sorry about that", Hiccup mumbled, returning to his work, "my dad is…he thinks that…" Hiccup didn't even know what to tell the winter spirit, so embarrassing the whole situation was. Damn, why Jack had to hear his father say such things?

"He thinks that you'll have sex with me?"

"D-don't say it like that!" Hiccup blushed even more –if that was possible- and hoped that he could just crawl under a rock and die there. Jack just kept on grinning but never bought the subject back; instead, he picked up Hiccup's sketchbook from the floor and flipped the pages.

"I noticed some mistakes here", he said, and Hiccup relaxed his shoulders in relief that Jack didn't demand him to answer his question. He looked at the sketch of the Tooth Fairy that Jack was showing to him.

"What mistakes?"

"First of all, Toothiana doesn't look like this," the boy explained, tapping the drawing with his finger. "She's not this…small."

"Huh?" Hiccup was confused. Wasn't that small? What was that supposed to mean? Hiccup looked at the drawing. It represented the Tooth Fairy, everyone could clearly see that; a fairy with a blue dress and wings and a short, blonde hair.

"Also she has feathers. And her hair is way more colorful than that. And-"

"How do you know?"

Jack laughed so hard he nearly fell of the desk. "I have met her, of course!"

"You- what?"

"I know her. She's also a Guardian." Ah, Hiccup thought, of course. Jack was a Guardian –or, so he had told him-, so of course he would know the other Guardians. What Hiccup hadn't known was that the Tooth Fairy was one too and that…she had feathers.

"Also she has swords", Jack smiled and drew swords to the paper. "There."

"She has s-" Hiccup was cut off by Jack who flipped the pages and then showed a drawing of a bunny. Hiccup smiled when he saw the sketch –it was one of his masterpieces, the bunny looking very realistic but yet like a picture from a children's book; it was the Easter Bunny.

"Is this supposed to be an Easter bunny?"

"Yes…" Jack laughed again, and this time he actually fell down to the floor, holding his stomach. Hiccup felt slightly offended; was the drawing so hilarious?

"Bunny doesn't look like this!"

"You have met him, I assume?"

Hiccup stopped laughing and sat up. "Yes." Jack sounded like a teenage girl telling her friends that "duh, of course she had bought the dress from the mall and not from a second hand shop", "and he's way taller than this. And he stands on two feet. And has boomerangs."

Actually Hiccup was getting rather interested in the details Jack was telling him; obviously the characters from children's books and imagination were nothing like the kids thought, Hiccup including –not like he was a kid anymore, though.

"It's Easter in two days", Hiccup pointed out, "is he busy?"

"Yeah, but he manages well. He uses tunnels to get from point A to point B really quickly."

"Tunnels?"

"Yeah, he creates them just by tapping the ground with his enormous foot", Jack said and stood up, tapping his foot on the floor to show Hiccup how the bunny did it. Hiccup laughed through his nose and looked at the teen.

"That's cool. He's a Guardian, too?"

"Yeah."

"A friend of yours?"

"Well at least we like to tease each other. Once I caused a huge blizzard in '68, on Easter, and he's still mad at me because of that."

"Jack, that's mean."

"No, it was _fun_", the boy smirked and then sat back down to the desk, looking at Hiccup intensely. "Do you believe in him?"

"Who? In Easter Bunny?" Jack nodded. "Well, yes?"

"So you would be able to see him?"

"Um…if it works like that, then yes?" Jack clapped his hands and smiled. "Then we'll pay him a visit!"

"We will…do what, exactly?"

"Go see him!"

"How?"

"I'll take care of that", Jack gave Hiccup a mysterious smile before grabbing his staff and walking to the window, jumping out and leaving a confused boy behind.

* * *

Hiccup didn't see Jack until Saturday evening when the boy knocked his window. Hiccup found this odd because usually Jack just invited himself in by opening the window and making his way into Hiccup's room, but now he just patiently waited for Hiccup to come open the window –for the winter spirit's luck Hiccup was in his apartment that moment, so he had heard the knock.

"Jack? What are you doing?"

"I came to pick you up?"

"To where?"

Jack flew backwards a few meters and smiled, waving his hand toward the forest in which he and Hiccup had first met. "There."

"Okay. Why?"

"To see Bunny!"

Hiccup raised his eyebrow. What on Earth was the boy talking about? As far as he knew, the Easter Bunny made sure no one saw him while he hid the eggs. How did Jack think that they could just see him in the forest, just like that bump into him?

But however, Hiccup decided that it would be easier to just say 'okay' to Jack instead of telling him how stupid his idea was. "I'll just go take my jacket and-"

Jack was taking none of that, he just flew into Hiccup's room, took the boy's hand and flew out again while Hiccup was hanging on him for his dear life. Toothless was left to sit on the windowsill, watching his owner go. The cat gave a long, sad meow as Jack flew further away with Hiccup.

"Jack!"

"Relax, I'm not going to drop you- oops", the boy laughed as he let go of the brunette's hand, watching him fall. But of course he didn't let Hiccup fall all the way down, he just flew after him and caught him only meters from the ground and then flew up again.

"Someone will see me floating in the air! Put me down, I'll walk", Hiccup demanded the spirit, but Jack just smirked and flew towards the forest, not caring that Hiccup was telling him to put the boy down all the way from the dorm to the forest.

Once they landed, Hiccup went down to his knees and looked angrily at Jack. "Never again."

"Stop whining, it wasn't that bad."

"I almost died!"

"No you didn't", Jack sighed and pulled Hiccup to stand on his legs, "I caught you."

"Never again, I said." Hiccup's heart was still bouncing like crazy, and the boy had to take several deep breaths to calm himself down. Jack rolled his eyes and took a hold of Hiccup's hand, pulling him up and leading him towards the open spot they had met in two weeks ago.

"What are we doing here? You don't think the Easter Bunny will just show himself to me, do you?"

"No, but I know he'll come here, so he'll see you, whether he wants to or not."

"How do you know he will come _here_", Hiccup asked, even more sure that standing in the middle of the forest this late in the evening, waiting for the Easter Bunny, was just beyond stupid.

"I made sure of that." Jack gave Hiccup a foxy grin before he turned his eyes to the ground before them. Hiccup wasn't really sure what exactly were they waiting for, but he said nothing to the boy with white hair.

After an hour of waiting, Hiccup shivering in cold because Jack hadn't let him take his jacket, something happened. The ground opened a bit in the shape of a circle, and before Hiccup could blink, the hole got bigger and bigger and a bunny jumped out, back towards him and Jack. Jack gave Hiccup a smile and then called for the tall creature with blue-ish gray fur.

"Hey, Kangaroo!" Said "kangaroo" –Hiccup found this nickname hilarious and yet very odd- turned around and rolled his eyes as he saw the person who was calling for him.

"Jack."

"What a surprise to see you here!" Jack laughed. Hiccup saw the bunny frown as he walked closer, poking Jack's chest with one of his boomerangs. The Easter Bunny didn't even seem to notice Hiccup who was standing behind Jack, kind of hiding there.

"It was you who froze one of my tunnels so that I had to change my route, wasn't it?"

"Who, me?" Jack asked innocently, smiling like a child, "How can you say such things?"

"Listen here, Frost…"

The two Guardians didn't even notice Hiccup sneaking from behind Jack and walking to the hole the bunny had come from. Hiccup peeked down from the edge just to see hundreds, if not thousands of little eggs with the colors of rainbow standing down there, and as soon as they saw the boy they just kind of…jumped out, running into the woods. Hiccup picked up one of the eggs, holding it in his hand. It had blue and red on it, and tiny legs that made Hiccup chuckle –it was adorable. The boy with freckles looked the egg wiggle its small legs as it tried to escape, hoping that they would touch the ground so it could run after the others.

"Oi, kid!" Hiccup heard the Easter Bunny call for him and he almost dropped the egg in surprise. He managed to catch it, though, and as he turned around to Jack and the bunny, he hid the egg behind his back, acting like he wasn't doing anything, biting his lip in the fear that the tall rabbit would get mad –he had scared off the eggs, after all. "Did the eggs go already?"

"Um", Hiccup stumbled with words, "yes. Sorry."

The bunny made his way to the brunette by jumping on his feet, Jack following him, grinning.

"Bunny, this is Hiccup. Hiccup, Bunny."

"Bunnymund", Bunnymund said and looked at Hiccup before turning to Jack.

"What is this boy doing here?"

Jack just gave Bunnymund a simple, short shrug before smiling sweetly. "He's a friend of mine."

"Hard to believe, Frost." The sound of Bunnymund's voice wasn't mean, it was more of a teasing one, Hiccup noted. Jack laughed and watched at the forest.

"Shouldn't you go after your eggs, Kangaroo?"

"They know where to go", the bunny said and frowned at the boy again, "and I'm not a kangaroo."

"It's the accent."

"And you're the pain in my ass, mate." With that, the bunny turned to face Hiccup, looking at the boy from head to toes before telling him to watch out for Jack's pranks, and then made his way to the forest, leaving Jack and Hiccup behind.

"He's…tall", Hiccup pointed out to Jack who nodded and looked at the hole. It was slowly closing, making a tiny, grumbling sound. "And his bracers were cool."

"You could say that. What's that?" Jack looked at the egg Hiccup was holding, and Hiccup followed his eyes to his hands. The egg had stopped wiggling and was now just patiently waiting to be put down.

"Oh my god!" Hiccup shouted and went down to his knees, placing the egg down and pushing it a bit with his hand to make it walk towards the way the other eggs and Bunnymund had went to. Then he stood back up, looking after the running egg. "You think he'll notice the missing one?"

"You won't get any eggs this year, Hic."

"Damn", Hiccup said sarcastically; he didn't really care whether he would get any Easter surprises or not, he was just happy that he had had the chance to meet the Easter Bunny –it was an experience he would never forget.

"Should we go?" Jack asked, tapping his staff against the ground. Hiccup raised a brow while looking at said piece of wood.

"Yes, but we're walking." Jack gave the other teen puppy eyes and whined that it would take too long, but nothing made Hiccup change his mind. They would walk and that was it.

"Fine", the white haired boy finally mumbled, noticing that he wouldn't win this little argument they had. As Hiccup turned around to make his way towards the dorm, Jack looked at the flower that had appeared to the place where the hole had been; Bunnymund's closing holes caused flowers to appear, and now, without any second thoughts, Jack kneeled down, picked up the flower and ran after the brunette artist.

"Hiccup, wait up!"

"What's that?" Hiccup looked at the flower Jack was offering to him. It was a beautiful, red flower, yet Hiccup wasn't quite sure of its specie -but truth to be told, he really didn't even care. He just took it from the winter spirit, smiling and shooting a look filled with confusion at Jack.

"Happy Easter", was the simple answer the other boy gave the brunette, smiling a warm smile. "If Bunny won't bring you any Easter eggs then I will buy you ones."

"How sweet of you", Hiccup joked, giving Jack a push with his hand. "Happy Easter."

* * *

**A/N:** I know about the whole "stuck forever being 14", but to me Jack doesn't seem much of a 14 yo, so I decided to refer to the ROTG App that claims Jack to be 17, because 17 sounds more logic to me than 14 (maybe it's because I live in a place where the 17 yo 'kids' are more like children than the ones at the age of 14, so I like to think Jack being 17) :P

Anyways, this was kind of an Easter story, I'll continue with the actual story later (not that this wasn't part of the actual storyline, but you know what I mean.) Hope y'all have a happy Easter and get lots and lots of chocolate eggs! uwu


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Hohhoi, since the chapter I posted yesterday was kind of an Easter-surprise, I wanted to go on with the story...aaaand since I had too much free time, here, have another chapter eue

* * *

_**Chapter 3 – I like him, I like him not**_

The bell gave a loud ring as the lesson ended and the students ran out of the classroom, talking happily to each other about what they had done during the weekend. It was only 10 am but everyone was already eager to get back home (or to the dorm, whatever).

Hiccup was placing his books into his bag lazily, thoughts running anywhere but in the current moment. He smiled as he remembered the Saturday night when he and Jack had went into the forest –it had been an amazing two hours of his life, and even more than thinking about the Easter Bunny he had met, he thought about the flower Jack had given to him. As he and the other boy had went back to the dorm –Hiccup had finally had to give up with the 'no flying' –rule as the main door was locked and flying to the window of the brunette's apartment was the only way to get in- Hiccup had placed the flower to a vase. Jack had given him a sheepish smile, telling him that he was surprised about Hiccup not throwing the flower into the trash can.

Of course, to avoid embarrassment, Hiccup had told the spirit that he only wanted to keep the flower because it would remind him about meeting Bunnymund, nothing else. Jack had only smirked and nodded, but obviously hadn't swallowed Hiccup's lie –for Hiccup's nuisance.

"If you say so", he had said and told Hiccup to go to sleep so that he would have the energy to go for the yearly egg hunting –Hiccup had never before went there but now that Jack was with him, the boy was forced to go. So Hiccup had went to bed with Toothless, falling asleep rather quickly but just before he had fallen asleep he had felt Jack climb into the bed next to him, making Toothless go to sleep on Hiccup's stomach.

What bothered Hiccup about that night was that he wasn't sure if he had been too tired to care about Jack lying next to him or hadn't he just not minded. Because when Hiccup had woken up the next morning and found out Jack was still there, right next to him, instead of pushing the boy off in embarrassment Hiccup had found himself snuggling against the other boy, body and mind filling with a warm feeling –a feeling that later started to scare the boy.

The boy with brown hair sighed as he fell deeper into his thoughts, trying to figure out his feelings for Jack –once again- while packing his bag. What Hiccup was sure about was that Jack was dear to him and he wouldn't change the day he had met him to anything at all, and that the daily presence of Jack was now an obvious thing to Hiccup –rather, he got nervous and lonely whenever the boy _wasn't_ with him (which rarely happened, Jack was pretty much always right next to Hiccup). But what made Hiccup wonder if Jack was more than a friend to him was a thing that had happened only five days before.

It had been a normal day, really. Hiccup had gone to school, Jack had patiently waited for him in his apartment –Hiccup always told him not to follow the boy to school because Jack would only end up distracting him during classes- and then, when Hiccup had come back to the dorm Jack had asked about his day and if his art teacher had yelled at him again about his drawings. It was what they had done every day ever since Hiccup had met the winter spirit.

But that day, after Hiccup had been finished with homework and fed Toothless, he had found out that something was off; usually Jack was poking him with his staff and talking to him and teasing him while the poor student tried to focus on essays and other school work, but that day Jack was nowhere to be seen. Hiccup had only noticed that when he suddenly had realized that he had finished his homework with a new record. He had called out Jack's name several times only to hear to response, and he had gotten nervous –where was the boy, why wasn't he there?

Hiccup had went from his bedroom to the living room –and found Jack lying on the couch, sleeping. The boy had looked so calm and peaceful and Hiccup had chuckled to the fact that even spirits seemed to be able to fall asleep.

And then it had happened –the thing that even scared Hiccup himself; the brunette had watched Jack sleep, brushing off hair from said boy's face and then continuing to stare at him. And at that moment Hiccup had noted how good looking the spirit actually was; shiny, soft hair, pale skin and almost invisible, light freckles on his face, long eyelashes. Hiccup had smiled as he had thought about the blue eyes Jack had –they sparkled like stars every time Hiccup looked at them, no matter the situation.

And then, without thinking any further, had Hiccup placed the tiniest kiss of all kisses to the corner of the spirit's mouth, and as soon as his lips had touched the cold skin, he had realized what he was doing and had jumped back in surprise, heart beating like crazy, Hiccup being able to hear it in his ears. Hiccup had sat on the floor next to the couch, sure that any second Jack would sit up and look at the human boy in disbelief, telling him that he needed no kisses from the other; he had been scared that Jack would go away from him, not wanting to see him again.

But the white haired Guardian hadn't woken up, he had just kept snoring lightly on the couch, and it had calmed Hiccup down –a bit. But when he had stood up and went back his room, lying down next to Toothless who was having his nap on Hiccup's bed, he couldn't help but wonder what the hell had just happened. Surely it had been just a mistake, a sudden trick of mind; Hiccup didn't like Jack like that –right?

"Haddock!" Hiccup's mind returned to the classroom as Pitch walked to him and tapped his shoulder. "What are you doing? I told you to show me your sketchbook, not to space out in my class!" Hiccup blinked a few times to get himself together. How long had he been standing there, his pencil case in his hand and eyes locked to the window next to him?

"S-sorry, sir", Hiccup mumbled and took his brown sketchbook from his bag and gave it to his teacher. Pitch took it and walked back to his desk, flipping the pages as he did. Hiccup was so glad that he had had the mind to say 'no' to Jack's pleases of going to the town's egg hunt and done homework instead –now the sketch book was filled with drawings of flowers, trees and animals, Toothless included. He even had one drawing of Astrid in there, he had drawn it out of memory before showing it to Astrid to see what the girl thought about it –she had liked it very much, so Hiccup decided to not to tear it from the book.

Pitch was looking at the drawings with a blank face, so it was hard for Hiccup to tell if the man liked his drawings or not. Finally the man closed the book, looking at Hiccup. For a second Hiccup's heart stopped and he prepared himself for the worst –Pitch not liking his drawings and yelling at him. But, instead, the tiniest smile crept to the black haired man's face as he nodded in acceptance.

"Well done, Hiccup. They look good", he said and offered Hiccup his sketchbook back. Said boy walked to the teacher, mumbling a 'thank you' when he put the book back into his school bag, relaxing his shoulders when his brain finally realized that Pitch had liked his work.

"You can start drawing landscapes now", Pitch said before Hiccup had the chance to flee from the classroom, "and don't let me down."

"Yes, sir. I won't." Pitch nodded as a sign that Hiccup could go, and so the boy walked out of the class, trying to bite back a smile that was about to appear to his face. He was so proud of himself, you have no idea. It was very rare for Pitch to like anyone's art, even Hiccup's, who was probably the best in the whole school, but now Pitch had told him that his drawings looked good, and Hiccup couldn't wait but to tell Astrid the good news –the girl was waiting for him in the main hall, sitting at the couch that was there for students to rest on it; Hiccup could see her blonde braid all the way to the second floor he was in right now.

"Astrid!" he called to get the girl's attention as he walked down the stairs, making his way towards the couch. Astrid turned to him, smiling brightly and making room for Hiccup to sit down. The boy did, not being able to hold back his smile anymore. Astrid raised a brow at him.

"What's with the smile? Did you get an A?" Astrid asked. She had –once again- wanted to wait for Hiccup but –one again- Pitch had told her to leave. So, now the girl was eager to hear how Pitch had treated Hiccup's newest work.

"Not yet", Hiccup answered slyly. He could see how Astrid got more and more curious.

"Tell me!"

"He said they looked good."

"And?"

"I can start drawing actual landscapes now." Astrid almost jumped up, but managed to calm herself down, just sticking with clapping her hands.

"That's great!"

"I know!"

After some minutes of talking about Hiccup's possibilities of actually passing the class and making Pitch satisfied, Hiccup started to wonder if he could talk about his problem with his feelings towards Jack with the girl sitting next to him; Astrid was worth the trust, plus the girl always knew how to advice her friend. As said girl started talking about something, Hiccup stopped listening and instead thought how he should say it. Should he mention names? No, it would be too risky, even if there were no Jacks in the school. Hiccup knew that the moment he would say the name, Astrid would look through the phone dialog of the town to find someone names "Jack" –of course it would be useless as Jack was invisible to everyone, but still.

"Are you listening?" Hiccup blinked and stared at his friend who was staring at him.

"Sorry. Can I ask you something?"

Hiccup had accidently asked the question too seriously, and now Astrid looked worried. "What is it?"

Hiccup bit his lip. How he should put this…Maybe he should just say "nah, it's nothing" and forget the whole thing? No, he couldn't do that, not anymore, not now that Astrid already knew Hiccup had something on his mind; the girl would never leave him alone if he would back off at this point.

"If someone likes someone and the other doesn't know it, should the other one tell the other one about their feelings in the risk of ruining a friendship?" Hiccup blurted out the question quickly. Astrid looked at him for some seconds in confusion before giggling.

"You're not crushing on me again, are you?"

"No!"

"What, I'm not good enough for you?" Astrid acted to be hurt by Hiccup's words, holding her hands on her heart, and Hiccup felt like this was a bad idea.

"No, I-"

"I was kidding, Hiccup", Astrid chuckled and then pulled out her serious face. "Who is it?"

"That's not important", Hiccup mumbled and looked away from Astrid so the girl couldn't read his expression. Astrid hummed and then asked how big the crush was.

"I don't know, really." As Hiccup gave such answer, Astrid looked confused.

"You don't know?"

"No."

"Then you should find that out before telling him."

"Him? How did you-"

"You're gay, Hiccup."

"Don't put it like that."

"Sorry."

"But your advice is good", Hiccup smiled, "but then what?"

"After you have discovered how much you like him? Then you have to find out how much he likes you."

Hiccup swallowed. That would be hard. Jack was a person who flirted with Hiccup all the time, and most of that time Hiccup was just confused about whether or not Jack was just joking. But he nodded at the girl, and just when he was about to thank her for the advice that –hopefully- could help him, Snotlout, Hiccup's cousin, ran to them, smiling widely.

"Come on guys, it's snowing, why are you sitting here?!" Astrid and Hiccup both turned their gazes to the window just to find out that Snotlout was speaking the truth –it was snowing, and it was snowing hard. Hiccup watched the students run out to the back yard of the school as the teachers tried to stop them, telling them that the lessons were about to start –but none of the teens listened.

"Come on, let's go!" Snotlout said again, pulling Astrid up by her hand and then making his way out. Astrid looked at Hiccup who was still sitting on his spot on the couch, staring outside.

"You coming or not?" Hiccup turned his eyes to Astrid and nodded. He stood up and followed Astrid and the others outside, and the second his feet touched the snow he started to scan the sky in hope of seeing the winter spirit that had caused this.

And yes, there he was; Jack Frost, that little pain in the ass, sitting on a branch and looking at the teens who were now throwing snowballs at each other (while the teachers tried to stop them), creating some of his own, throwing them at whoever ran past the tree. As the boy saw Hiccup, his smile widened and he waved his staff –only to earn an annoyed stare from the other. Hiccup waved his hands a little to sign the boy to come with him. As Jack rolled his eyes and jumped off the branch, Hiccup turned to Astrid.

"I, uh, have to go…there." For his luck Astrid wasn't really listening, she just nodded and ran to the others to join the snowball fight. Hiccup walked along the wall and then disappeared behind the corner, Jack floating in the air next to him.

"'Sup?" He asked as Hiccup stopped walking and turned to him.

"What's with this?" Hiccup questioned the other and pointed at the snow on the ground. It had stopped snowing at this point –luckily, because there was already a lot of the white mess.

"I was bored and wanted to have some fun."

"God, Jack, why here?"

"Because I knew you were here", Jack smirked and landed on his feet. "Don't say you wouldn't like to have a little snowball fight", he chirped and created an icy snowball. "You had fun in the forest back then, so…"

Hiccup knitted his brows together as he watched Jack walk to the corner and then throw the snowball towards the others. He heard a scream as it hit someone and then laughing as the students continued their play. Jack went back to Hiccup, smiling, and Hiccup couldn't help but to smile back –at least now he didn't have to go to class since, thanks to Jack's ability of making everyone have fun, the teachers had now joined the snowball fight, too.

Just when Hiccup was about to make a snowball for himself to throw it at the spirit, he heard footsteps coming towards him and noticed that Jack was looking over his head, so the boy turned around.

"Hiccup." Who stood there was the nightmare of Hiccup's; a tall, dark boy who was like a closet with his size –a boy from upper class that had been bullying Hiccup since the boy's day one in this school.

"H-hey, James", Hiccup took a few steps back as the boy approaches closer, "h-how are you doing?" Hiccup didn't notice Jack noting the change in Hiccup's whole being; the brunette was like a mouse being molested by a cat, getting chased into a corner with no escape.

"Oh, the usual", James said and smiled warmly. "I haven't seen you in a while."

"I…" Hiccup swallowed. Jack watched the two boys in suspicion; he felt like this wasn't going to end well. "I have been busy with school."

"Okay." The boy came even closer, now standing only inches away from Hiccup. "You have no idea how much I have missed", the boy suddenly shoved Hiccup to the ground by kicking him to his leg, making the smaller boy fall down onto his stomach, and then sat down on top of Hiccup's back, "this." With that, James took a handful of snow and rubbed is against Hiccup's face, ignoring the boy's attempt of stopping him. He took another handful of snow, then another and another, placing all of them to Hiccup's face. Poor boy tried his best to scream for help, but it was hard when his mouth got filled up with snow.

It felt like hours had passed when Hiccup felt James getting off his back suddenly, collapsing next to him. Hiccup immediately turned to his back, ready to jump up and run for his life, but as he turned, he saw Jack hovering over James, a very angry expression on his face. James had also turned around, shouting out questions about who had knocked him off from Hiccup's back. Jack just watched the boy's confusion before grabbing his foot and getting up into the air, pulling James off the ground while the boy yelled from surprise, looking at Hiccup. Hiccup, on the other hand, was too confused to do anything while Jack swung James around in the air, but when it looked like Jack was about to drop the boy onto his head, Hiccup stood up, putting his hand up into the air and telling Jack to put James down.

"He'll get hurt!" Jack just watched his human friend for a moment and then –only half gently- put James down.

"Sorcery!" yelled the boy as he landed to stand firmly on his two feet, staring at Hiccup. Hiccup was afraid that the boy would attack him again, but then Pitch appeared out of nowhere and told the two to stop. First Hiccup was relieved for the teacher to come, but then got nervous; how much had Pitch seen? Had he seen James floating in the air?

"The two of you, to my class room. Now." Hiccup and James obeyed without any arguments and made their way inside the school, Jack walking slowly behind Hiccup.

* * *

"Haddock, your turn." Pitch was standing in the doorway, calling for the boy who was sitting in the hallway, nervously staring at this hands that were resting on his lap. For the past hour, while James was in the classroom with Pitch, Hiccup had only thought about what had happened outside. He was worried that the teacher had seen James just flying around, and that the man would now wonder how it had been possible.

As James walked out, he stared at Hiccup and whispered "you're getting in big trouble, Hiccup" as he walked past him towards his friends that were waiting for him and the end of the hallway –it was a break again, Hiccup and James had missed one lesson because of getting caught by Pitch –after the teachers had gotten tired of the snowball fight, they had told the students to brush the snow off and get inside, so the lessons could start.

"Haddock, inside!" Pitch said again as said boy hadn't moved yet. Hiccup practically jumped up and quickly made his way into the class room, Pitch closing the door after him. Hiccup noticed that Jack didn't follow him all the way –he had walked with him into the hallway, but now he just stayed put instead of following the brunette to the class. Hiccup found this odd, but didn't have the time to think about the reasons of Jack staying behind before Pitch had closed the door and told him to sit down.

"What was that about?"

"James attacked me, sir", Hiccup mumbled his answer, avoiding eye contact.

"He says something made him fly." Hiccup swallowed and carefully looked at Pitch. The man showed no emotions, so Hiccup couldn't tell if the man believed the other boy or not.

"I'm…" Hiccup didn't know what to say. He couldn't say he was sorry, because James was the one who had attacked him. Also he couldn't say that he knew nothing about it, because he had been there, so such answer would have been suspicious.

"One month detention."

"W-what?" Hiccup was now fully staring at Pitch who was glaring back at him with his golden eyes.

"You'll have to stay in my class every day after school for a month. Clean up." Hiccup sighed. The last lessons of each day of the week were the clay lessons –the class would be a mess afterwards.

"B-but", Hiccup tried, but Pitch just rose his hand and told Hiccup to go to his next lesson.

"Starting tomorrow, Haddock." Hiccup sighed and did as he was told, walking out of the class room and heading towards his history lesson. Just his luck to get away from having to explain the flying James –situation but getting into detention.

When he got into the hallway he saw that Jack wasn't there anymore –the boy was nowhere to be seen. Even more odd, Hiccup thought. Jack had seemed to be a bit…off when they were sitting in the hallway, waiting for Hiccup's turn to go into the classroom; Jack hadn't said anything to the other teen, he had just been sitting there, quietly staring at the floor. Hiccup hadn't said anything either, he had been too focused on worrying about the whole situation that he hadn't found it necessary to talk, but now he needed nothing more than Jack standing next to him so Hiccup could thank him for basically saving his life.

* * *

For Hiccup's huge surprise, Jack didn't show up anymore during that day. There was no more snowing, and because of the heat of spring, the snow that was resting on the school yard slowly started to melt. Hiccup was sure that Jack would come and make more, but that never happened.

The day went on very, very slowly as Hiccup waited to see Jack. He was quiet for the rest of the day, and Astrid found it rather weird, but asked no questions about Hiccup's mood as he thought that the heavy atmosphere was there because of the detention Pitch had given to her friend.

Hiccup thought that maybe Jack had went back to Hiccup's apartment –after all, they had a deal about Jack waiting for Hiccup in there-, but Jack wasn't there either, as the brunette went there after the end of his school day. He unlocked the door and the only one greeting him at the door was his cat, begging for food.

"Jack?" Hiccup called out as he filled Toothless' cup with food. "Are you in here?" The boy got no answer and he started to get seriously worried. Ever since Pitch had appeared to the yard, Jack had acted like a whole different person; no smiles, no laughs, no jokes, no words at all, nothing, and as hours went on with Hiccup ignoring his homework and just waiting for Jack in front of his bedroom window, the boy started to think that maybe Jack wouldn't come back at all. It was a silly thought, he knew it, Hiccup had done nothing wrong so Jack didn't have a reason to just fly out of his life, but still he kept on getting more and more miserable about the situation as the clock on his wall told him it was already midnight when he finally backed off from the window in disbelief.

Hiccup was confused as he changed his clothes and brushed his teeth, getting to bed. He lied down on his back for several minutes, just staring at the ceiling, before turning to his side and closing his eyes.

"You stupid asshole, where are you?" he mumbled to himself, half asleep. He would be so tired at school tomorrow, this stupid waiting for the spirit would take its revenge for sure.

"Who are you calling an asshole?" Hiccup was fully awake in an instant, almost getting a heart attack as he turned around towards the voice and backed off at the same time, causing himself to fall to the floor, landing on his butt. Jack peeked from the edge of the bed, raising his brows.

"Jack!" Hiccup breathed out and climbed back to his comfortable bed. "How long have you been there?"

"I got in when you were in the bathroom", Jack just simply answered and helped Hiccup to put the blanket back on its place over the boys. Hiccup shivered as Jack's cold feet touched his; the boy wasn't used to Jack lie under the blanket, too –usually the white haired teen gave the whole blanket to Hiccup.

"Where have you been?" Hiccup whispered and turned his face to Jack. Hiccup was lying on his back and Jack was on his side on Hiccup's right, pushing himself up with his elbow and resting his cheek on his hand, looking down at Hiccup. Hiccup found their position rather awkward, and he was glad it was dark in the room so Jack couldn't see the crimson blush that had crept to the brunette's face.

"I had things to do." Jack smiled and finally fully lied down, staying on his side and staring at Hiccup with his blue eyes –the human boy could have sworn that Jack's eyes were still sparkling, even though there was no light in the room –not even moonlight as the clouds had hid the moon.

"What kind of things?" Hiccup wasn't sure if he even wanted to know, so he whispered this question so quietly that his voice was only barely hearable, making Jack to shift closer so he could hear what the boy was saying –this only made Hiccup blush even more but he made no effort to move away from the winter spirit (he was kind of scared that he would fall off the bed again.)

"Guardian things." Jack slowly tickled Hiccup's nose with his finger, causing the boy to giggle a little. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay", Hiccup said, but it wasn't really okay to him. He hoped that the boy would have said something to him before disappearing like that –Hiccup had been worried, Jack should understand that!

"Get some sleep, Hic", Jack whispered before snuggling even more and more closer to the other teen. Jack's body was cold, but Hiccup didn't really even notice that because he had suddenly started to feel quite hot; for days he had been wondering if he liked Jack a lot or _a lot_, and now the white haired teen was just casually lying next to him, his other arm wrapped over Hiccup's stomach, other hand sliding through the brown locks of hair. Hiccup tried his best not to push Jack off, because no matter how embarrassing this was, he still kind of liked it.

Smiling and closing his eyes, Hiccup started to feel calm and tired, but just when he was about to fall asleep he remembered what had happened at the school. His eyes shot open and he looked at Jack, who looked worried since the brunette had just suddenly opened his eyes as if he was about to die any second.

"Jack", Hiccup whispered, staring right into Jack's eyes.

"Yeah?" Jack's face was filled with concern at the human boy's tune.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For today."

Hiccup smiled and placed his left hand over Jack's right hand that was resting over Hiccup's body. Despite the darkness, Hiccup saw Jack lift his eyebrows in confusion. "For getting James off of me", Hiccup explained as Jack still didn't seem to understand what he meant.

"Oh." Jack smiled again, this time like a big brother. "No problem." With that, Hiccup closed his eyes again, falling asleep almost immediately while Jack continued to run his fingers through Hiccup's hair.

First Hiccup dreamed about Jack and him having a snowball fight, but said dream soon turned into a nightmare about clay and a messy classroom.

* * *

**A/N: **readbetweenthelinesandyou'llgiveaspoilertoyourself what.

Has anyone ever gotten into a face wash? Yeah, me too. Lovely.

James is an OC I made for that bullying-scene...because I happen to like Snotlout and didn't want him to be the bad guy ok ;_;

I wanted to get on with the _actual_ Hiccup/Jack because this IS a HiJack story, after all...eugh I'm sorry if things seem rushed.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **As my train of thoughts goes **way** faster than my fingers and memory, I sometimes forget to put my ideas to the story...And because of this I made a mind-map to help myself remember the things I want to write about. Well, this made me realize that this fic will be filled with sad things and- oh well, better not tell any spoilers, you'll eventually see what I mean.

**Warning: **Slight violence

* * *

_**Chapter 4 – The visit of an angry father**_

"What did you say?"

"I have to stay at school after the lessons."

"Why?"

Hiccup sighed and stared at his friend, raising a brow. "Well as far as I recall, you dragged James into the air and so Pitch put me into detention-"

"Pitch put you?"

"That's what I said."

Hiccup and Jack were sitting in the middle of Hiccup's small living room, enjoying a lazy morning before Hiccup would have to leave to school. Hiccup had told Jack that he would be late –every day for a month.

"So you're going to spend the afternoon with…Pitch." Hiccup wasn't fully sure, but it looked like Jack's eyes narrowed a bit.

Hiccup just shrugged. "It's not that bad." Jack just blankly stared at the human boy, seeming to fall to his thoughts. "Jack?" Hiccup waved his hand in front of the other's face to bring him back to Earth. "Jack, what's wrong?"

Said boy blinked a couple of times and shook his head. "It's…nothing."

"Really?"

"Really." Jack smiled and then stood up. "You should go or you'll be late."

Hiccup kept sitting on the floor and looked at Jack. Ever since yesterday, when Pitch had dragged Hiccup and James to his class, Jack had seemed to be bit off. First he had disappeared and then just calmly climbed to Hiccup's bed –the brunette blushed at the memory, remembering how they had lied on the bed like a married couple- and then, in the morning, he hadn't been there anymore –usually, when Jack lied next to Hiccup, the boy waited for the human to wake up before getting up. Instead, he had been standing in front of the window, frowning. And now, for the two hours he had been awake, Hiccup had been wondering if he had done something wrong. He didn't remember saying anything offensive to the other, and besides, Jack didn't seem to be mad at him, but there was something wrong, definitely.

"Hiccup", Jack said and kneeled down, poking the boy with his staff, "I said it's nothing. Get up."

"You know, I really don't understand you spirits", Hiccup pointed out and stood up, grabbing his school bag from the floor and kissing a good bye to his cat who was sitting on the shelf. Jack seemed to get confused by Hiccup's words, but Hiccup never explained himself; he just walked to the door and left, without saying anything to the boy with sparkling blue eyes.

Well, maybe he was acting like a drama queen, but he was tired of this. In just two weeks he and Jack had become really close, and just when Hiccup was starting to feel a bit more than just friendship towards the other, Jack started to act distant and mysterious. Hiccup sighed as he walked down the stairs of the dorm, taking his phone out of his pocket when the phone started to vibrate, sending tickles down Hiccup's thigh.

"Hello?"

"_Hiccup? It's me."_

"Hey, Astrid."

"_I just wanted to give you a call and tell you I'm not coming to school today."_

Hiccup sighed in disappointment –great, just great. His only friend wouldn't come to school just when he needed some other things to think about than the spirit that would be waiting for him in his apartment after school –now that Astrid wouldn't be there, Hiccup would have many hours time to think and wonder what was wrong with Jack.

"Why not? Are you sick?"

"_No, just really tired. I can't keep my eyes open."_

"Didn't you sleep well?" Hiccup opened the main door of the school, getting in and instantly spotting James –hell, this day seemed to start as a great one!

Astrid yawned at the other end and told Hiccup that she would explain later –right now she needed to go back to bed.

"Get well soon, okay? I won't survive without you!"

"_I will. Fighting, Haddock!" _And with that the call ended and Hiccup stuffed his phone back to his jeans' pocket, making his way up the stairs to the second floor. First up would be history, then Pitch's art –Hiccup cursed his memory for forgetting his sketchbook to his room; Pitch would send him to the bottom circle of Hell for this.

* * *

The lessons went on like a blast –and yet, so very slowly. Hiccup wasted every class with wondering off with his thoughts, totally skipping every part of the teachers' speaking.

Hiccup tried so hard to find a reason for Jack's off behavior. He even drew a mind-map to his notebook (instead of writing down the years of each World War), and yet he couldn't tell what was with the guy.

It had started when James had attacked Hiccup. He had protected the smaller boy, of course, that's what friends do, right? Then Pitch had appeared. Pitch…Hiccup kept thinking why Jack had went to quiet after that. Pitch was cold and even quite scary, yes, but why the man's presence had put Jack so quiet? This all seemed so weird that Hiccup's head had started to hurt at the end of the day when he walked to Pitch's class.

"You remembered your detention", was Pitch's greeting once Hiccup opened the door and looked at the class, eyes wide. The place was a total mess! It would take him forever to clean it up –Toothless was going to be so pissed when Hiccup didn't show up for dinner in time; and the boy didn't even want to think about Jack. But, on the other hand, Hiccup had heard that James would have to clean up the toilets until the very end of the school year, so he guessed this wasn't so bad.

"Did I have any other choice?" Hiccup mumbled to himself and dropped his bag to the floor, walking to the sink and taking out a wipe to clean the desks.

As Hiccup worked his butt off to get the already parched clay off, Pitch was just sitting behind his desk, elbows resting on it and chin resting on his hands. He wasn't doing any of his own work, like teachers usually did when they were watching over students that were in detention; he just followed Hiccup with his eyes. Hiccup never looked at the man, but he could feel the stare burning the back of his head.

Pitch said nothing during the two hours of Hiccup's work, unless you count that every now and then he pointed out that Hiccup had missed a spot. And because of those mentions, it took Hiccup more time to clean the class than what he had planned to use for his task.

Finally Hiccup placed down the wipe and the bucket of water and sighed. "There."

Pitch stood up and slowly walked to look at the desks to judge Hiccup's work. He took his time, on purpose if you ask Hiccup, scratching his chin while he walked on ever so slowly, almost making Hiccup scream "hurry!" to the man.

"Fine", Pitch finally said dryly, breaking the silence, "you can go." Hiccup thanked the lord for these words and then made his way to his bag, picking it up and opening the door.

"But", he heard Pitch say and stopped right on his spot, sending silent prays to the sky that Pitch wouldn't give him more tasks to do, "next time, be quicker. I have better things to do than watch over you."

_Well don't be so damn slow while judging my work_ was what Hiccup wanted to say, he wanted to say it, oh, so badly, but instead he just nodded and walked out of the class, closed the door and ran across the hall to escape before Pitch would open the door and yell after him.

* * *

Hiccup turned the key in the lock, unlocking it and opening the door –just to get attacked by Toothless who was really, really hungry. The boy with freckles saw Jack sitting on the couch, holding something small in his hands –Hiccup was too tired and exhausted to ask the boy what was it that he was holding. He just said a silent 'hi' to the other, making him jump up from surprise and hide the whatever he had been holding to the pocket of his hoodie.

"That took long!" Jack mumbled and then stood up from the couch.

"I know. The class was really messy." Hiccup sighed and lazily walked to the kitchen, giving Toothless his food. He heard Jack's footsteps as the spirit followed him, stopping directly behind him.

"You ok?" Hiccup turned around to face the other –and got shocked as Jack's face was filled with worry.

"Uh, yeah", the brunette answered and rose a brow, "why?" Jack smiled and walked back to the living room, Hiccup following him in confusion.

"No reason", the boy said and sat back down to the couch. "Do you have homework?"

"Ah, shit", Hiccup whined and sat down next to the winter spirit, looking at his school bag that he had left to lie on the floor right in front of the door –he had been too tired to drag it with him any longer than necessary. Hiccup frowned and looked at Jack.

"No chance that you would do them for me?" he begged, trying to make the best 'please help me' –face that he just could. Jack, however, only laughed and placed his hand to Hiccup's face, turning the human's face away from him.

"No chance." Hiccup let out a shaky breath and then walked to his bag, took it and walked into his room.

"Thanks a lot!" he called and took out his books to start fighting with his math homework. It was getting late and he had so much homework to do that he would have to stay up quite late.

Then his phone rang, making Hiccup roll his eyes in anger. What now?

He took the phone and prayed that it would be Astrid, calling him to tell him good news like 'Hey Hiccup I'll come to school tomorrow' or something.

But no, it was his dad. "Hey, dad."

"Hiccup!" Stoick's voice was filled with anger and Hiccup knew he was in trouble. "I heard about your detention!" Oh shit, Hiccup thought. Why Pitch had to call his dad? If he would still live at home, he would now be grounded until his 50th birthday.

"What the fuck was that about?!" Hiccup bit his lip and looked at Jack who had appeared to stand in the doorway –Stoick was yelling so loudly that Jack had heard it, even if the phone wasn't on loudspeaker. "Hiccup, answer me!"

"It was…it was self-defense", Hiccup tried. The only response Hiccup got was Stoick's growl before the man continued to yell on the phone.

"This is the first time you get in trouble in your whole life!"

"Dad-"

"Is this because of that new friend of yours?"

"It isn't-"

"He was seventeen, wasn't he? Is he in a gang or something?"

"Jack wasn't-"

"I'm coming over there, Hiccup. Tomorrow."

Hiccup got the sudden urge to scream. The last thing he wanted was his father to pay a visit and nag at him about how "kids who get in detention in school will always be the trouble makers in work". "You don't have to, dad, it's f-"

"Tomorrow." And like that Stoick hang up on his own son, leaving Hiccup to sit in front of his desk, face blank, phone slowly slipping from his hand and then landing on the floor with a bang. Jack walked over to him, looking worried.

"Hiccup?" he called for the boy, putting a hand to his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"He's coming."

"Who is?"

"My dad. He said he'll come here tomorrow."

Hiccup felt hot tears burn the corners of his eyes. No no no, this couldn't be happening. Stoick couldn't come! This was just a bad dream, he would wake up any minute now and then everything would be okay. He felt fingers take a hold of his chin and then his head was turned to his left so he was now staring at Jack's blue eyes –or, rather, Jack's eyes were staring at his own, green ones.

"Hiccup, what is it?"

"I'm in a big, big trouble."

"Why?"

"Pitch had called my dad and told him about the detention."

"And that's why he's coming?"

Hiccup nodded and blinked multiple times to keep the tears from falling to his cheek, swallowing loudly. "Shit, Jack, this is really bad." He stood up and started to walk around his room, biting his fingernails nervously. Jack also stood up but didn't do anything to stop the brunette from walking in a circle. He just watched him, wondering what about Hiccup's father visiting was so upsetting that the boy had almost cried.

"Jack", Hiccup mumbled and stopped in the middle of the room, staring at the winter spirit who was standing in front of his desk. Said boy stared back at the other, waiting for Hiccup to continue.

Hiccup swallowed again. Should he do this? What he was about to ask for the spirit was that if he could stay with him when Stoick would arrive –the man wouldn't see Jack, of course, but only the presence of the boy would make Hiccup feel better; he knew it. He opened his mouth, then closed it, biting his lip and then opened his mouth again, but no words came out –it felt like they were stuck in his throat, so he closed his mouth again.

Why was asking Jack to stay so hard for the boy, you wonder. Well, for days Hiccup had been having a fight inside him, a fight about his feelings for the white haired teen. A fight that made it hard for Hiccup to look at Jack without blushing, hard to laugh with him without feeling that they would never be nothing but friends –and if he asked Jack to stay with him during Stoick's visit, it would mean that Jack would see the relationship Hiccup and his father had. And that would mean Jack would have to cope with the fact that Hiccup's father was still beating his son, giving him physical discipline, even after months of Hiccup moving out. And the human boy knew that, knowing Jack's nature, the boy wouldn't go anywhere after seeing the man give bruises all over the brunette's body –and if Jack would stick around until the end of line, Hiccup's feelings would grow stronger and stronger until he would have to confess his feelings to Jack; and that would mean their friendship getting ruined, in a good or a bad way.

So yes, it was a dilemma for Hiccup, asking for Jack to stay.

But deep in his heart Hiccup knew that no matter how the question would change the future, he couldn't cope with this visit alone; his body couldn't take any more hits, not after three years of getting slapped and pushed around just because he was gay or other reasons like that. So he let the words come out of his mouth as a blurt as he asked for Jack to stay right next to him, no matter what would happen.

"Didn't plan to do anything else", was Jack's response, a response that almost made Hiccup cry, but instead, Hiccup smiled and walked to Jack, hugging the boy ever so tightly, feeling hands wrap around him when Jack hugged back. "Don't worry, Hic, it'll go fine", Jack pulled back from Hiccup, looking at him, encourage in his eyes.

"And if it doesn't, I'll use this." And Jack rose his staff, showing it to Hiccup before rotating it in his hands playfully, obviously trying to lighten up the heavy atmosphere –and it worked, Hiccup laughed a bit through his nose before slapping the staff away from Jack's hands, making it fall to the floor.

"You're not going to freeze my dad, Frost", he said, acting to be angry at the boy. The winter spirit laughed, glad that his friend didn't seem to be so miserable about his father anymore.

"Come on, you need some food", Jack demanded the boy and dragged him to the kitchen, telling him to forget about homework and play with him and Toothless instead.

* * *

As morning came, Hiccup was already so done with the day that all he wanted to do was to stay in bed with his black cat and eat chocolate. But he knew that would only be a dream; he was in detention, so staying out of school was only available if he was in his death bed –Pitch wouldn't take any other excuses.

So, lazily Hiccup sat up and tried to get up, only to fall back as Jack took a hold of his waist, preventing the boy from going away –once again the pale teen had been sleeping next to Hiccup. It seemed to have become a habit, the two of them sleeping next to each other in Hiccup's bed; a bed so small that the teens had to lie down really close to each other, making it even harder for Hiccup to not place another kiss to Jack's mouth while the boy was asleep.

"Five more minutes, Hic…" the boy mumbled, snuggling against Hiccup's warm body that desperately tried to struggle its way from Jack's firm hold.

"I'll be late from school, Jack." The winter spirit was only half awake, his eyes closed and a small smile playing on his lips as he buried his face into the human boy's neck, making said boy go deep crimson.

"J-Jack, please", Hiccup tried, slowly putting his hand on top of Jack's, lifting the arm to be able to get up, "Really, I need to go."

Jack sighed in annoyance and drew back his arm, letting Hiccup get up and walk to the kitchen. Hiccup chuckled to himself as he heard Toothless give a loud meow when Jack started to cuddle with the cat since Hiccup didn't have the time to stay in bed –for Jack's disappointment.

While Hiccup was pouring milk to his cereal, he dialed Astrid's number (he had taken his phone from the nightstand when getting up from bed), hoping that the girl would come to school. The phone let Hiccup wait until the boy heard Astrid's voice –only to find out it was the answerer.

"_Hello, Astrid here. Not able to answer you right now, try again later~" _the voice of the blonde girl said, and Hiccup put the phone away. Damn, looked like Astrid wouldn't come today, either –if the girl was about to come to school, she would be awake by now and be able to answer her phone.

"You're up", Hiccup said as Jack appeared to the doorway.

Jack whined. "Toothless bit me." Hiccup held back a laugh when Jack showed the little tooth marks on his arm.

"Well, your own fault", Hiccup pointed out before starting with his cereal. Jack sat down on the other side of the table, watching Hiccup eat his breakfast in a hurry.

"You have to stay today, too?" Hiccup rose his eyes from the bowl to his friend.

"Huh?"

"Detention, Hic. Do you still have it?"

"Oh." Hiccup was now finished with the food, in a new record, as he was in a hurry already. He stood up, placed the bowl to the sink and then gave Toothless his food –the cat was meowing, walking around his owner in hunger-, and then sighed. "Yeah."

"When is your dad coming?"

Hiccup closed his eyes. He had totally forgot about his father, that he was coming to see his son today. "Well, he comes by train so I guess he'll be here just when-" Hiccup's sentence was cut off when his phone beeped. The boy hoped that it would be Astrid, but nope, it was a text message from his father.

_Hiccup, they gave me extra work. I can't come. We'll talk about your detention later._

Hiccup felt like crying from happiness. He wanted to run to the front door, open it, run across the hallway of the dorm and yell "I'm so happy!" He liked his father, yes, he was dear to Hiccup, but now that he wasn't going to come, Hiccup would be saved from a rant and a slap to the cheek.

"Good news?" Jack asked when he saw Hiccup's wide smile. Said boy nodded happily.

"Dad isn't coming", he said and walked back to his room to change his clothes. Jack followed him, telling him that it was a good thing –and Hiccup couldn't help himself but to laugh a bit at how right Jack was, even though the other boy didn't even know it; Jack would never find out Stoick's methods of teaching his son a lesson, and that really _was _a good thing.

As Hiccup was about to take off his shirt, he realized that Jack was still there –in his room, sitting on his bed, watching at him.

"Jack", Hiccup stuttered and looked at the boy from the corner of his eye. He was standing between his bed and his drawers of clothing, back half-way at Jack. "Do you mind?"

"No."

"I meant that could you leave?"

"No."

"Jack."

Jack smirked and then drew small circles to the floor with his staff, creating frost. "This isn't the first time I see you change your clothes, you know", he sang and then laughed at Hiccup's shocked expression. "I was kidding, Hic." Hiccup sighed in relief –the last thing he wanted was his friend slash crush to see him half naked.

Jack turned around on the bed, back towards Hiccup. "Go ahead." Hiccup rolled his eyes, knowing that Jack wouldn't give up in leaving the room, and turned his back to Jack (just to feel comfortable with himself) and took his shirt off, tossing it to the bed. This was really embarrassing, and Hiccup felt blood rush to his face, even though he knew Jack wasn't looking.

"So…" Jack started, trying to make the silence that had landed to the room disappear, "how's your school day today?"

"Pretty okay."

"Hm."

And then the silence was there again. Hiccup took his time with the clothes, but was eventually finally finished with them, telling Jack that it was okay for him to look now. The spirit immediately turned around and jumped from the bed.

"Do you really need to go? I'm so bored when you're at school", he whined as Hiccup prepared his school bag –this time not forgetting his sketchbook.

"Yes, Jack, I really have to."

"Can't I come with you?"

"Jack-"

"Please." When Hiccup turned around, he faced Jack, who was giving the human boy the biggest puppy eyes he had ever seen in his life.

"Jack, the last time you were there I got detention."

"I saved you", Jack tried.

Hiccup sighed, "Yes, you did, thanks for that, but still", he picked up his bag and walked to the front door, Jack right behind him, "stay here, okay?"

Jack pouted and crossed his arms around his chest, looking away from Hiccup. "Mean."

"Bye, Jack", Hiccup chuckled and left the apartment.

* * *

Just when Hiccup thought that the day would be bearable –even if Astrid was still out-, his father appeared to stand in the doorway of Pitch's class.

The day had been a normal one; lessons, lunch, more lessons and then Hiccup had went to the detention. He was cleaning up the messiest desk, sweating like crazy, when he heard a familiar voice come from the hallway. First he heard Pitch's voice –the art teacher had told him that he would go for some while but that Hiccup "wouldn't have any chances to escape"- and then his father's. And then the door opened, the teacher and the father standing in the doorway, both looking at Hiccup. The brunette swallowed and put the wipe he was holding in his hand down, greeting his dad.

"D-dad! Weren't you- Didn't they-" Hiccup never finished the sentence; he didn't have the slightest idea of what to say. Hadn't Stoick said that he wouldn't come? Why was the man standing there, calmly looking at his son?

"Well, change of plans. Come on, you should show your apartment", Stoick answered and watched Pitch walk to his desk.

"You can go, Haddock." For the one time Hiccup would have hoped for the teacher to be his cold, usual self, the man decided to be a nice guy and let him go before the class was clean. Universe must have hated Hiccup that moment, or at least so the boy believed, cursing his whole life.

Hiccup lead his father out of the school and to the dorm –what other choices did he have? He wouldn't just say that nope, he wouldn't bring Stoick to the apartment since the man had lied to him about not coming. Stoick was quiet the whole way, and that made Hiccup nervous; obviously the man was saving his yelling for the time they were in Hiccup's place, out of the reach of the other students' gazes.

Jack was at the door first once it was opened by Hiccup, about to welcome the boy, when he saw Stoick and immediately took a tighter grip of his staff –Hiccup noticed the boy's knuckles go white.

"So, you live here?"

"Yes."

Stoick just hummed and looked around the apartment quickly before turning to his son. "You live alone?"

"Yes."

Stoick narrowed his eyes a bit and then asked if Jack visited often, but got no answer as Hiccup said nothing. Jack had moved to stand next to his friend, ready to defend him –he sensed the aggression in Stoick. Even Toothless, when seeing his owner's father walk in, had hid under the couch.

"Hiccup, I asked you a question and I'm expecting you to answer it", Stoick said slowly and watched Hiccup shift nervously on his legs, unsure where to go or how to be.

"He doesn't, dad", Hiccup finally lied, looking away from his father. A bad mistake. Stoick practically smelled the lie, and reached out his hand, grapping the collar of Hiccup's shirt, lifting him up from the floor, tapping the boy's chest with his other hand.

"Don't lie to me", he said calmly, looking at Hiccup who was doing his best not to let the tears to be seen –he always tried not to cry in front of his dad, since the man always said that crying wasn't okay if you were a male.

"I'm not!"

"Where is he?"

"Why do you want to know?" To Stoick it looked like Hiccup was just waving his hands to get away from his grip, but actually the brunette was moving his arm to stop Jack from attacking the man; the white haired spirit had placed his staff in front of him, ready to freeze the big man before him. But Hiccup managed to stop him from doing so –if the options were either getting beat up or seeing his father being frozen, he would choose the first one.

Stoick let go of Hiccup's collar, making the boy fall to the ground as he hadn't been prepared for his father to release him, so his legs weren't ready to touch the ground. Hiccup watched his father's level of angriness grow, imagining steam coming out of the man's ears.

With a frustrated huff, Stoick made his way to Hiccup's room. In the meanwhile Jack helped Hiccup to his feet, and the two of them followed the brunette's father –Hiccup feeling surprisingly confident and safe now that he knew Jack was there.

Hiccup watched his dad give his room a judging look. Obviously Stoick was trying to figure out whether or not there had been other people. The bed was unmade, some of Hiccup's school books were lying around the floor and desk –overall his room was a mess, and the boy's father noticed this (usually Hiccup kept his room rather tidy.)

"He has been here." Stoick seemed to be so sure of it that he almost smiled to his own cleverness. Hiccup couldn't argue –if he would say anything now, Stoick would only say that he was lying again, and that would be bad. So, the boy stayed silent, wondering where was Stoick going with this. What did Jack have to do with the detention? The man didn't seriously think that it was Jack's fault he had gotten into the detention? Well okay, technically it had been, but Stoick couldn't know that.

Finally the freckled boy got tired of his father just scanning his bedroom. "Dad, please-"

"Hiccup", Stoick turned to his son, not letting him finish, "I have put up with that you're gay", the man said rather dryly, and Hiccup knew that the was lying –his father was anything but okay with him being gay- "but I won't put up with you getting into trouble because of some…some faggot!"

"Dad, it's not like that."

"Enough!" Stoick's yell was so loud that Hiccup was scared the whole dorm would hear him. "You're coming with me!"

"I can't" Hiccup said, and if not before this, now the tears were running down his cheeks, "I have school and-"

"You'll get into another", Stoick said and narrowed his eyes at the small boy standing in front of him, "so start packing."

"No."

Hiccup felt sudden rage fill up his body. No way he would go back home! He wouldn't just drop out of school, leave Astrid and go with his father just like that. He wouldn't do it.

"What did you say?"

"I won't come with you."

"Hiccup, I'm warning you-"

"No, dad", Hiccup snapped, surprising his father. Hiccup didn't argue with his father that often, so now the man was confused with Hiccup being so stubborn. "I will stay here."

Everything happened so quickly that Hiccup barely had time to blink before his father had shoved him against the wall, making the boy cough as the arm of his father was on his throat, keeping him still against the cold wall.

"I'm not telling you this again: you're coming with me", Stoick said and pressed his arm more against the boy, and Hiccup found it hard to breathe.

"D-dad", Hiccup breathed out, trying to push the man away –it was seriously starting to get hard for Hiccup to take in breaths, and his vision was going black-, but he was too weak and the man was too strong, too blind because of his anger to realize that Hiccup could choke.

And Jack watched this in shock. Now he understood why Hiccup had been on the edge of tears when he had heard Stoick was coming, and why he had been so happy when the man had said that he wouldn't come, after all (so why was the man there now, Jack wondered); the man clearly didn't understand that such violence wasn't allowed anymore.

Jack saw Hiccup's face turn red, then the brunette's eyes closed, and that's when the white haired teen's brain clicked: he had to save the other.

And how does Jack Frost save those who are in the need for help? He uses his ability to possess ice and snow, of course. And in an instant Stoick was in deep, deep ice, and Hiccup fell to the floor, gasping for air once he had landed on his butt. Jack rushed over to him, putting his arms under the brunette's and helped him to sit on a better position to make it easier for the other to breathe.

Once Hiccup had caught his breath again and he saw clearly, he stared at the frozen statue of his father in shock.

"Jack, you…" Hiccup didn't know what to say; Jack had frozen his father, the man was there, _in ice_, but also the spirit had saved his life –who knew if Stoick would have released Hiccup at all, even though the boy had nearly choked.

"I'm sorry, Hiccup, but he…you almost died!" Jack told the boy and looked at him in the eyes, his own full of concern that the human friend of his would now be mad at him.

Hiccup stood up and kept staring at Stoick in confusion. "What are we going to do? Is he going to die?" Hiccup's thoughts were running in circles and he just wished for this all to be just a one, big nightmare. Jack also stood up and patted the brunette's shoulder.

"I'll take care of him, don't worry."

"How?"

Jack smiled and dragged the man to the window. "I'll take him back home and make sure he'll survive."

Hiccup didn't know if he had anything to say against that –he definitely wanted the man to get away from his apartment, but he still wondered how exactly would Jack "take care of him". But he asked no questions, he just nodded and watched Jack push his father out of the window and fly away with him.

* * *

"You alright?" Hiccup took the cup of hot chocolate Jack was offering to him.

"Yeah", he said and took a sip from the drink. "This is cold, Jack."

"Sorry, must be my hands", he smiled and watched the boy with freckles drink from the green cup that said "A Good Friend" on it –Jack assumed the cup was a gift from Astrid.

Hiccup was sitting on his bed, cuddled under his blanket. After Jack had returned, he had forced Hiccup to go to bed and had treated him like a king –even if Hiccup had told the boy that he was feeling fine.

"What did you do to my dad?" Hiccup had asked, feeling a bit worried for the old man.

"Don't worry about it, Hic."

"He's not dead, right?"

"No." And that's all Hiccup had needed to know; his father was back home and alive, so he hadn't bothered his mind with any more questions.

"Jack, thanks again", Hiccup said, returning to the current moment from his thoughts. Jack was sitting next to him, arm around the human boy's shoulders and surprisingly or not, Hiccup felt too comfortable to be embarrassed by the way they were sitting.

Jack didn't say anything, he just rested his cheek on Hiccup's head, stroking the boy's shoulder with his hand. Hiccup was secretly smiling, knowing that the winter spirit wouldn't see it –he was so happy that Jack was there, by his side. He felt like nothing could get to him; he felt strong and confident.

Hiccup placed his head to rest on Jack's shoulder, sighing lightly. He wanted to tell the boy about his feelings so badly –after Jack had saved his life, the boy had realized that he really didn't see Jack as a _friend_ anymore- because moments like this made him hope that they would do this daily; cuddle with each other, whisper cute things and place butterfly kisses to each of their mouths.

But he didn't want to ruin the moment by blurting out his feelings, so Hiccup stayed quiet and listened Jack breathe slowly, feeling himself getting tired but kept himself awake as he didn't want the cup to fall from his hands to the sheets.

* * *

**A/N: **[sounds of disgust] Such a cheesy ending...I'm sorry about that ;o;

This chapter was a pain in the ass...First I wrote that Stoick beat Hiccup up, then changed it so that Stoick didn't come at all and then that Stoick did come, but the violence wasn't so major anymore (this version), and somehow I'm still not happy with this. Oh well, forgive me...

Also I want to point out that Astrid staying out of school isn't because I'm too lazy to write about her; it's a thing I'm putting into the story on purpose. Some of you may have guessed already what's going on here, but...I'll explain more things in the next chapter~ See y'all! C:


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Chapter's timeline is placed during Chapter 3, from Hiccup getting his detention to the end of the chapter.

* * *

_**Chapter 5 – Guardian things**_

Jack knew he wasn't really the greatest friend, leaving Hiccup like that. He knew that, despite the fact that -at least for now- Pitch seemed to be no danger, leaving his friend with the man was a risk. But he also knew that as soon as Pitch would try anything, anything at all, Hiccup wouldn't be in immediate danger; he had Jack watching over him, also when the older teen wasn't around. The spirit would be there in a blink of an eye if the human boy ever needed him.

So yes, he trusted that he could leave Hiccup in the classroom to hear his punishment for what had happened outside (Jack kind of blamed himself for that, but he couldn't change the past, so there was nothing he could do now.)

"Jack! What a surprise to see you here!" North, also knows as Santa Claus, called for the winter spirit as said teen landed safely into the workshop, kind of jet lagged from the trip to the North Pole. "It's not Christmas yet, is it?" the man asked jokingly and pretended to be lost with what date today was.

"Hey, North. You busy?"

"Do I look like I am?" Well, he didn't. He was sitting on the floor, eating a cookie (which kind of made him look like a kid, if you ask Jack), watching his yetis work with the presents for Christmas. North laughed and stood up, picking up the cookie plate and looked at the white haired teen. They hadn't seen in years (if you don't count the every now and then –visits Jack paid whenever the spirit wanted to see the workshop; he was still a kid of some kind, after all), not after they had defeated Pitch in Burgess, so North was surprised to see the spirit just crashing in only a little while after Easter.

"North, we need to talk." The tune in Jack's voice made North frown. This didn't sound too good. Jack Frost was known for his pranks and fun times –he was the Guardian of Fun, after all-, so of course whenever the boy sounded this serious, everyone knew that things weren't going so great.

"Walk with me."

And they walked, all the way through the workshop to North's office. This time the man didn't offer Jack a cake, which he was really grateful for, but he did give the teen a cookie before placing the plate to the shelf.

"So, Jack", North finally spoke up when he leaned to his desk and studied Jack with his blue eyes, "what is it? You don't sound too happy."

Jack took a bite from the cookie and scanned the room, having second thoughts. He should tell about Pitch to North, yes, of course, but he was afraid that this very moment Hiccup –not to mention the _whole town_ in which the brunette friend of Jack lived in- would be in danger.

"North, this is serious, very serious", Jack started, telling the man to sit down. North did, settling down and waiting for Jack to continue.

"I'm going to begin from the start", Jack stated, even though he knew that every second counted. But he just didn't feel like he could leave out any details.

So the winter spirit told everything. _Everything_. Everything about how he had wandered around the world for a while before settling into the little town of Berk, using his time there doing nothing. And then how he had met Hiccup –a boy he now was very close with, best friends so to say (well okay, Jack left out the fact that lately he had been feeling _too _fond of the human)- and how he had spent time with him. And finally Jack got to the point of the story where he had made snow to the school yard and how that's when he had seen Pitch –a man he thought he and the other Guardians had beat years ago- and how The Boogeyman seemed to work as a _teacher_ now.

All the way through Jack story from moving to Berk to meeting Hiccup, North listened quietly, but when Jack mentioned the name 'Pitch' and how he worked as a teacher in a school _full of teens_, he jumped up from his seat.

"You saw Pitch?!" he yelled, making the two elves that were in the room, trying to cookie plate from the shelf, jump up from shock and run out of the room. "Are you sure it was him?" North's voice calmed down a bit, but not so much, and he hurriedly walked to Jack who was standing in the very middle of the room. North took a hold of Jack's shoulders with his big hands.

"I'm pretty sure I can recognize him", Jack nodded and then looked at North, gripping his staff. "What are we going to do?"

North let go of the teen's shoulders and backed off a bit, rubbing his temples. "We have to think."

"Okay."

"Did you say he worked as a teacher?"

"Yes", Jack said and then added, "How do the people in the school see him? Isn't he supposed to be…you know, invisible?" The Guardian of Fun couldn't help but to wonder how it indeed worked out for the Nightmare King like that. But North soon gave him the answer.

"Everyone has their fears, Jack. Maybe Pitch is using them to be visible." North looked at Jack with a serious face. "Are you sure he hasn't attacked anyone yet?"

Jack thought about it for a second and then shook his head. "I don't think so. No one looked tired or showed any other signs of being bothered by nightmares."

North nodded and then sighed, obviously having a hard time deciding what they should do. "Did Pitch see you?"

Jack bit his lip and tossed the cookie away. He wasn't really hungry, he felt like he could throw up. "Yes", he mumbled. He hadn't even realized how bad that was, not until now that he thought about the consequences; now that Pitch knew Jack was in the town, he could easily start his attacks –if he was capable of doing so, of course. Jack wasn't sure whether or not Pitch was still possessing the nightmares (taking what happened back then into account.)

"Do you think we need to call the others?" Jack asked. North fell into his thoughts for a second before nodding.

"I think we do. Come."

Jack and North walked from the man's room to where the huge globe was. As North talked to the yetis for a while before heading off to call the other Guardians, Jack took a look at The Globe of Belief. It still had many, many shining lights on it, showing that the children of the world still believed –it was a good sign, really; it meant that Pitch hadn't done any damage anywhere.

"You haven't had any news from Pitch?" Jack asked, not turning his eyes from the globe. It made his heart all warm to see the lights. He knew that not many of the lights were for him –only a few people believed in him (like the children of Burgess, Hiccup and some few others he had met during his little tour around the world)- but the more lights, the more happier (and safer) Jack felt, not caring about who the children believed in.

"No", North said as he was finished with the Northern Lights and walked to Jack, also taking a careful look at the globe. "Now, where is this Berk?"

Jack jumped up to stand on the globe, taking a look. Finally he found what he was looking for, and placed his staff onto the map. "There", he said and then smiled, "Looks like the lights are still on."

"Yes, that's good", North said and ran his fingers through his beard. "I wonder what Pitch is up to."

"Nothing good", Jack huffed and then moved his gaze from the globe to the window. "Sandy's coming."

North turned around and greeted the Guardian of Dreams once the small man entered the workshop. Sandy was as quiet as always, but as a sign of his confused thoughts about North calling the Guardians, he had a huge question mark made out of his dream sand floating over his head.

"Jack has seen Pitch", the Father Christmas explained and then smiled at Toothiana who had just flown in.

"North! What's the occasion?" She asked and then apologized Jack as her minifairies had flown to the boy, flying all around him like a bunch of fans –which they technically were.

"Where's Bunny?" Jack asked and patted Baby Tooth with his finger as the fairy had sat down on his shoulder. Jack came down from the globe, joining the others.

"Here", came a voice behind them, and Bunnymund stepped out, walking to Jack and the rest. North smiled now that they were all there and they could start.

"Guardians, I've called you here for something serious. Jack", North nodded towards the winter spirit and all eye pairs were now locked with Jack's sparkling blue eyes.

And then Jack had to tell the same story he had told North earlier. When he finished, the three Guardians were visible nervous, looking at each other in shock.

"But", Bunnymund said, "I was in Berk only two days ago, and I didn't notice anything weird."

"That's because nothing weird is going on…well, at least, not technically. I told you Pitch works as a teacher in a school", Jack looked at each of the other Guardians, "but he doesn't seem to be attacking anyone."

"I think he's just trying to gain back his powers", Toothiana stated, and the others agreed. It was pretty much obvious that Pitch wasn't acting like a human just for fun. He _had _to be up to something evil.

"What should we do?" Bunnymund asked. They were all quiet for long minutes that felt like eternity, when finally North looked at Jack.

"Jack, you need to watch over the man." Jack nodded. That was pretty obvious, really; he was now living in Berk, with Hiccup, and so he had to make sure Hiccup wouldn't get hurt. He _had to_.

North continued after Jack had made it sure that he had understood what he had to do. "We shouldn't make our move just yet; that would have some serious consequences. So, Jack keeps an eye on Pitch and the rest of us wait. If, and when, something happens, we'll protect this little town Pitch is currently in."

They all agreed to this, knowing that it would be a risk to just suddenly attack Pitch: they didn't know what he was planning, so the man would easily throw surprises at them. So, they had to be careful and just observe the situation, and as soon Pitch would make his move, they would make theirs.

"You can go", North said, "I'm sure Jack will inform us about Pitch. Right, Jack?"

Jack nodded and took a final look at the globe before walking to the window, ready to return to Hiccup. "I will."

"Be careful, Jack", Toothiana said with a faint smile. She hadn't forgotten what had happened years back, and she didn't want that to happen again –and she surely wasn't the only one.

"Don't worry about me, Tooth", Jack smiled and left off with the other Guardians, each of them going to their own directions, leaving North to continue with the Christmas presents and wonder about what Pitch's plan was.

* * *

As Jack finally arrived back to Berk –it didn't take him too long, though, but long enough for the school day to be over already-, he decided to take a look at Pitch's classroom. Just in case, you know.

So he flew to the school, making sure that everyone was gone already. Yes, the school was empty, and Jack made his way to the window of the classroom the "art teacher" held his lessons in. He opened the window easily, getting some help from wind, and then flew inside, scanning the room. It was dark, as it was already getting dark outside, but nothing out of the ordinary really. Not like Jack had been expecting anything weird, though. The only thing he saw was just desks and easels and all kind of stuff every art teacher had. Jack walked around, not even sure about what exactly was he looking for. Maybe for a hint, a sign about what Pitch had in mind.

But he found none, so he just sat down to one of the desks and sighed. He just couldn't get his finger on what Pitch's plan was, it all seemed so odd and not like Pitch at all. Why would the man pretend to be a normal human being when he had brutally been defeated by the Guardians and his _own _nightmare creatures. Jack was confused, so confused he just wanted to attack Pitch this very instant and demand the man to tell the spirit what was going on. But, as North had said, no such thing should be done –he had to be careful and he had to make sure Pitch wouldn't see him again.

And of course, while keeping an eye over Pitch, Jack had to make sure the students were alright. Jack turned around on the desk he was sitting on, taking a look at the classroom again. 30 desks. That was a lot of students. Jack frowned at the thought of teens sitting in the same room with a powerful enemy, even if they didn't know about Pitch's true form.

Jack wondered how long Pitch had been a teacher. For months? Years? No, it couldn't be for that long. The white haired teen was sure that it had taken Pitch quite some time to get back to people from the hole he had fallen into. And, truth to be told, Jack didn't much care about _how _Pitch had made his way into the school, he was more interested in the question of _why _the man had done so.

It didn't take long for Jack's thoughts to wander from Pitch's plan to the fact of how worried he actually was about Hiccup. The boy had this man as his main teacher, and so he would be spending most of the time in this very same class Jack was in right now, with the Boogeyman children had been so afraid of for years. Jack shivered at the thought and hoped that he could just tell Hiccup to skip school for the rest of the school year. But he couldn't do so, he knew that he shouldn't tell the human boy about what he knew about the brunette's teacher. It would only scare the boy, Jack knew that, and he should first find out about Pitch's "master plan" before worrying the boy with Pitch's history.

Jack closed his eyes and imagined Hiccup working his butt off with his art projects in the room, day after day. It hurt the spirit a bit, to know that he wasn't able to do anything to help the boy: first of all, he had to keep it down until Pitch made his move, and second of all, Jack didn't want to worry the boy too much –after all, Hiccup shouldn't be involved to this mess, even if Pitch happened to be his teacher. And then again, it seemed like Pitch hadn't hurt anyone. At least, not yet. Maybe that's what Jack feared the most: that when shit would hit the fan, it would hit it _hard_.

To get his mind off from all the quite miserable things, Jack decided to find Hiccup's desk –just for fun. The boy dropped to his feet from the desk he was now sitting on, opening the cover to look inside. It was full of books and posters about bands. Jack shook his head and moved on to the next desk. As far as he knew, Hiccup didn't like music _that _much that the boy would bring posters of his favorite bands to school.

It took the winter spirit a while to find the right desk, but when he did, he couldn't mistake it: as he opened the cover, he found sketchbooks and pictures of dragons and fairies and yetis and everything in between. Jack smiled and sat down to the chair, taking a closer look at the sketchbooks. They were all full of drawings about the creatures in the pictures. Yup, it definitely was Hiccup's desk. Hiccup liked to draw, no matter what time of the day –or night- it was, and so the boy had many, _many _sketchbooks, some of them here, in his desk, and some of them at his apartment. And as far as Jack knew, all of them were full of fairytale creatures, if you don't count in that one book that had trees and flowers drawn into it, as a demand of Pitch…

Jack eyes widened as realization hit him hard. He jumped up from the chair, making it fall over. Jack flipped through the pages of one of the sketchbooks, a one that had loosen pages stuffed into it to keep them in one place. The drawings represented dragons and fairies and were full of notes written by Pitch –Jack didn't really know what Pitch's handwriting looked like, but he had the feeling that the notes were made by the man.

"These aren't real", "Draw things that exist, "Focus on trees and animals", that's what the notes said. Jack felt like throwing up. This son of a bitch was obviously trying to make Hiccup stop believing! Jack flipped through the pages angrily. Every single sketch and drawing had notes on them, notes telling the brunette student that fairies weren't real. Pitch was about to give the Guardians a hard time again, and perhaps a teen was an easy target: those few teens that still believed in such things as Santa Claus or so were often at the edge of stopping believing. Jack was surprised Hiccup still seemed to believe, though –despite the many disapproving notes written to the pages.

Just when Jack was about to put the sketchbook away, his eyes caught the page that got opened as Jack's fingers were still turning the pages. It was a beautiful picture, everyone could see that Hiccup had put much effort into it; sharp lines, colors, shades, lights, all of them were there. Jack would have smiled at how realistic the drawing was if he had been able to do so.

But he wasn't.

The person on the drawing was Jack himself –or, not _exactly_: it was an old man with looks of Santa Claus, but in a more…icier way. It was Old Man Frost, and just then Jack understood why Hiccup was able to see him: the brunette believed in Old Man Frost, and because the winter spirit stuck forever being a teenager was a variant of him, Jack was visible to his friend.

The paper wasn't fastened in the sketchbook, it looked like it had loosened up, like the sketchbook would have been in an accident, loosing some of its pages. Jack bit his lip and turned the paper around -as there were no notes on the front, but Jack knew that, knowing Pitch, the would be notes somewhere. Then he saw the comment.

"He isn't real."

Jack felt sudden pain in his chest, but said pain was soon replaced with rage that was rising all the way from his chest to his head as he stared at the thick letters written in red. Jack took a tight hold of the paper and then tore it in two, then into four pieces, then he continued tearing the drawing as long until it was impossible to continue anymore after the paper was in dozens of pieces. Jack let the pieces fall to the floor and then closed the desk's cover, huffing angrily to himself.

Pitch was planning on wiping the Guardians off from children's minds –like always. Jack was sure of it. The notes and comments on Hiccup's drawings, the point outs of how none of the creatures in the drawings really existed –it was all clear now.

Jack picked up his staff from the floor and ran to the window, flying off. He should inform North about this, about Pitch's plan of getting rid of the beliefs -the spirit knew that. But first he would have to go to Hiccup and make sure the boy was alright –Jack was quite sure that the human boy was completely fine, but he had the urge to prove it to himself.

* * *

The Guardian of Fun hadn't even realized how much time had passed until he entered Hiccup's room and took a look at the clock on the wall. Already midnight. Had he really been gone that long? Hiccup much have been worried sick, Jack thought.

Speaking of which, Hiccup was nowhere to be seen. Jack heard noises from the bathroom and assumed that Hiccup had stayed up the whole evening, waiting for the older teen to return –Jack felt bad about leaving Hiccup like that.

Jack lied down to the bed, sighing. What a long day it had been. The spirit was exhausted, and he just wanted to cuddle up with Hiccup and forget about everything that was happening outside the bedroom. Jack heard Toothless meow when Hiccup went to wish the cat a good night before returning to the bedroom. The lights were already out, so Jack wasn't really surprised as the brunette climbed to the bed without noticing Jack. But after several minutes had passed and Hiccup still didn't seem to notice Jack, the spirit felt a sting of suspicion in his heart –he knew he shouldn't have, but after seeing the drawings and the notes, Jack couldn't help but to fear for the worst; Hiccup didn't see him anymore.

Hiccup turned to his side, back towards Jack, and mumbled a question to himself, half asleep. "Where are you, asshole?"

Jack knew he shouldn't have done so, but he had to see if Hiccup was still able to see him, so he just asked "Who are you calling an asshole?"

It was a mistake, Jack knew it the very moment Hiccup let out a surprised gasp as he turned around and fell from the bed. Jack felt like everything was going to hell today.

The boy with blue eyes looked down at Hiccup from the edge of the bed, rising his brows a bit, relieved that Hiccup still saw him. Hiccup looked a bit annoyed, but Jack ignored that and helped the boy back to the bed, answering Hiccup's question about how long he had been in the other's bed, while placing a blanker over them. Jack felt Hiccup's feet tremble a little and bit back a smile. He never remembered that his skin felt freezing cold to humans.

"Where have you been?" Was the question Hiccup asked next –the question Jack had been scared to hear. Should he tell about Pitch just yet? No, he couldn't. Hiccup looked so innocent, lying next to him, eyes focused on him. Jack was leaning onto his elbow, looking down at Hiccup with a faint smile. He felt bad about lying to his friend, but he knew that he would also feel bad later if he told about Pitch's plan.

So he just answered that he had things to do while he moves his arm and lied down next to the brunette, staring at him. The boys were now lying very close to each other, as Jack had shifted closer to hear what Hiccup was saying, and he sensed that Hiccup didn't dare to move away from him, so…there they were, lying on a small bed like a couple. Jack could have sworn that he felt his cheeks heat up a bit –if that was even possible, that is.

"Guardian things. Don't worry about it.", was his reply to Hiccup's question about what "things" Jack was talking about. Well, at least he wasn't lying –he just wasn't saying _all _things out loud. Better that way. He tickled Hiccup's nose with his index finger, making the boy giggle. He sounded like a little kid when he did that, and Jack felt even more and more worried about Hiccup's well being now that he knew what Pitch was up to.

"Okay", Hiccup said, but they both knew that he was lying. Jack heard it from the human boy's voice. It totally wasn't okay with him that Jack had disappeared like that, and Jack was supposed to apologize, but then he decided not to –it wouldn't make things any better.

The winter spirit told Hiccup to get some sleep, snuggling closer and placing his hand over Hiccup's stomach and the fingers of his other hand to the beautiful brown locks the boy had, and when the boy closed his eyes, Jack felt like maybe everything would be alright. Pitch was most likely to take his time before attacking anyone, so at least for now Hiccup was safe.

Suddenly the brunette's eyes shot open, and Jack nearly had a heart attack from this.

"Jack", Hiccup whispered the spirit's name. Jack tried to hide the concern that was in his vice, but failed as he asked what was it. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For today. For getting James off of me." Hiccup had placed his hand over Jack's, not knowing that he was sending shivers through the spirits body with doing so. Jack got the sudden urge to just hug the boy until the world's end.

"No problem", Jack said with a smile and watched how Hiccup slowly drifted off to sleep, and continued to run his fingers through the boy's hair, even after he noticed that Hiccup was fully asleep.

Jack smiled as he watched his friend sleep. Hiccup was his everything now, and Jack would protect him until the very end, no matter what.

Maybe it was a bit sudden and surprising, but Jack found himself wondering what the human boy thought about the spirit; Jack surely knew that he liked Hiccup a bit more than how two best friends feel about each other, but he was unsure about Hiccup's feelings. Sure, he had been awake that day Hiccup had kissed him when the boy had thought that Jack was asleep, but that didn't really prove anything. Probably only that Hiccup was just as confused about his feelings towards Jack as Jack was about his feelings towards Hiccup.

The teen decided that he would let Hiccup figure out his feelings before Jack would tell about his own, strange ones. He didn't want to rush things and scare the boy. Hiccup could take all the time he needed, Jack agreed with himself.

"Don't worry, Hic", Jack whispered to the freckled boy's ear quietly, "I'll protect you." Jack hid his face to the crook of Hiccup's neck, trying not to get too emotional. "I promise."

* * *

**A/N: **[_Calling the Guardians_ playing in the distance]

Anyways, I want to tell you guys a few things, just to make everything clear.

1) I was about to have to 300% different storyline; that you would be like "wtf is going on" (like Hiccup), but then I thought that it'd be more interesting for you guys to know what's going on and to see that Jack is keeping things from Hiccup.

2) The ending is the same as in Chapter 3, but in this chap it's from Jack's point of view -I thought it would be interesting to see what Jack thought about lying next to Hiccup and blabla all that. Also I wanted both Jack and Hiccup to figure out their feelings around at the same time but not say anything to each other bc they're adorable dorks uwu

3) I'll give you cookies if you now guess what's up with Astrid.

Aaaand that's pretty much all, see you in the next chapter! Ciao~


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6 – Starting the summer**_

Summer holiday came ever so slowly. Hiccup was desperately trying to please Pitch with the work of cleaning up he did in the detention, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. He really hated how whenever he did his best, Pitch would only turn him down by saying "this isn't clean enough." Like, clean it up yourself if I'm not good enough to do so! But of course he didn't say it right to Pitch's face, that would have gotten him into more trouble.

Besides from having his detention, Hiccup did his best with school. You know, homework and exams and all that. Actually, he tried so hard he didn't even notice the little changes around him. Of course he didn't –he didn't know what was going on, so obviously he didn't find it odd that people were getting tired, that there were dark circles under their eyes. Hiccup noted none of this.

But Jack did. And he was selfish enough not to inform the other Guardians about what he had seen –how Astrid had finally returned to school (Jack had seen her when she had come to pick Hiccup up from his apartment) with dark circles under her eyes and her usually so clean braid all messed up, and how some other students were also visible tired. And why do I call Jack selfish? Well, not to mention that he didn't go to North and tell him that he now knew what Pitch was up to, unlike they had agreed that he would, he also didn't mention anything to Hiccup. Even if he knew that the boy was in danger –Pitch being his home class teacher and all.

And why didn't he tell Hiccup? Well, thing is, Jack _cared _for the human boy. He cared so much that he didn't want to startle the boy, and so he just kept himself calm whenever Hiccup casually mentioned Pitch's name or told Jack what the man had said to Hiccup about the brunette's drawings –that was the thing Jack hated the most: to hear how Pitch turned down every fantasy drawing Hiccup drew, how he told that Hiccup should draw existing things, like fairies or such _wouldn't _exist.

Jack hadn't even told Hiccup about what happened to the Old Man Frost –drawing. He didn't say "hey Hiccup guess what, I destroyed the drawing you obviously had spent a lifetime on" when the brunette was trying to find it. No, Jack kept it all to himself. And it was tearing his heart apart. All this lying, it hurt him.

Jack looked at Hiccup's green eyes when the boy blabbered to him about how the final day at school had went –how they had had their traditional celebration, wishing good luck for those who graduated- and how happy he was that now he could have more time to spend with Jack, and the winter spirit fell to his thoughts. He was so glad about summer holiday, it meant that Hiccup would now be far from Pitch AND that he could spend every hour of every day with the white haired teen.

Jack didn't know it, but Hiccup didn't fully tell him how happy he exactly was –he said that he was happy, when actually he was _beyond overwhelming with joy_: he had put up a plan of spending time with Jack, trying to figure out his feelings towards the spirit, and if he found out that he liked Jack –which he was quite sure about-, he would then tell about said feelings to said spirit. Simple, right?

Well, not really. Hiccup knew that they had been friends for only some weeks when he first had noticed how fast his heart was beating whenever Jack smiled at him, and so he hadn't really referred to it as 'having a crush on him'. But now that over a month had passed since the day he had kissed Jack and the feelings still hadn't vanished, he was sure that it was _more _than just a crush, but still he had problems with calling it a crush –or being in love. Because, like, could you actually call it true love when you have known someone for such a short while and then suddenly just say that you like them? 'Like' as in _like _like.

The funny part in this dilemma of Hiccup's was that he didn't even know Jack had the _exact _same thoughts. The spirit was also wondering whether or not he liked Hiccup more than as a friend, and it was kind of freaking him out that he was more sure of that he liked Hiccup than sure of that he didn't like him. Were immortal people even allowed to fall in love? Wouldn't it be terrible to see your loved one grow old without you because you just couldn't grow old with them, no matter how much you wanted? Jack's head (and heart) hurt whenever he tried to figure out what would even happen if he fell in love with the freckled boy –would he see him graduate from school, get a job and a girlfriend and his own house and get married and have some children and then spend his last days in a nursing home?

What a depressing thought.

Hiccup wasn't sure were he and Jack just staring at each other's eyes over the table, but they both blinked and turned their heads away once Toothless gave a loud meow, dragging both boys back to Earth from their thoughts.

"You hungry, buddy?" Hiccup smiled and stood up, following the cat to its food cup as the animal gave another meow, signing its owner that duh, of course he was hungry.

As Hiccup was filling up the cup, Jack asked what Hiccup was going to do during his summer holiday. The brunette shrugged. "I don't know, really…Everyone else is going to spend the whole summer travelling around or lying on the beach, so I guess I'll just hang around with you." Not that Hiccup minded, though.

"Why won't you go traveling or sunbathing?" Hiccup sat back down to his seat, sighing and resting his elbows on the table, his face on his hands.

"Well I don't have the money to travel around, and I'm not a big fan of beaches…I don't like being half-naked in front of all the people."

Jack tilted his head, giving the boy a questionable look. "My face isn't the only part of my body that's covered in freckles", Hiccup explained and then blushed furiously. "No wait, that came out wrong!" Jack bit back his laugh when the brunette stuttered with words. "M-my point is that I don't usually spend time on the beach."

"So we're just going to hang out?" Hiccup gave Jack a little nod and then looked at him, laughing to himself. "What's so funny?"

"I was just wondering what heat does to winter spirits."

"I'll melt and turn into a paddle." Hiccup looked a bit shocked, so Jack laughed and told him that he was joking. Hiccup pouted.

"That's not funny!"

"Sorry", Jack chuckled and then shrugged. "Heat won't do anything to me, really."

"So you're up for a walk in the park?"

"Only if you buy me an ice cream."

"It'll look stupid if I buy two."

"Then share one with me?" Jack gave Hiccup puppy eyes as he pleaded for the teen.

"Well, okay."

* * *

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For sitting here with me."

Jack looked at the teen that sat next to him on a bench. Hiccup had his eyes closed and he was casually leaning back on his seat. He looked relaxed, and Jack was happy about it –truth to be told, he had been scared that the detention would suck all the energy from the freckled boy, but it seemed like that fear had been worthless.

"No problem."

Hiccup opened his eyes, staring at Jack's hands. "You ate the whole ice cream?"

"Uh", Jack laughed awkwardly, "yes..?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes and narrowed his eyes, leaning in closer to Jack, and for a second the spirit was sure that Hiccup would hit him (for eating an ice cream? What an absurd idea.) But, he didn't, instead he just whispered "For that I have to challenge you to a snowball fight, Frost."

For some seconds Jack was confused, but then a grin found its way to the white haired boy's lips as he rose his eyebrows. "Bring it on."

Hiccup stood up and made his way to the forest he and Jack had first met in –the forest wasn't all that far away from the park-, the spirit following him. The brunette teen was slightly bored, and also the heat was making him crazy, so a little fun with snow wouldn't hurt, right? Besides, if he could get hit by a snowball, it would only feel good, so actually Hiccup was quite excited to have the snowball fight. And also he would have to revenge Jack for making all that snow fall on top of Hiccup back in the day they met, Hiccup decided once they were in the forest.

"Same rules as in fight one?" Jack asked as he created the snowballs, giving one of them to Hiccup.

"Sure. But no cheating this time!"

"I wasn't cheating", Jack said with a roll of eyes. What? He hadn't cheated, he had just made snow fall on top of Hiccup, that's all. That's not cheating.

"Sure you weren't."

"Let's just start."

"You're so going to lose, Frost", Hiccup laughed and ran to the other border of the open are they were standing on (of course it was the same one as back then, what are you talking about?), waiting for Jack to get ready.

"We'll see about that!" Jack yelled at him once he was ready, gathering around his snowballs. "Ready?"

"Ready when you are!" And then a snowball hit Hiccup's shoulder. Wow, Jack really was fast, wasn't he? Hiccup hadn't even seen the boy bend over to the snowballs, pick one up and throw it at him. But for Hiccup's luck Jack would only win if the only snowball Hiccup had would break or miss its target.

As the winter spirit kept throwing snowballs at Hiccup, the brunette did his best to avoid getting hit to prevent his snowball from falling to the ground. It was getting hot as it was already past midday and the sky was clear, but the snowballs that hit Hiccup every now and then kept him cool. He was actually kind of jealous for Jack, because the guy was…you know, _a winter spirit_, so Hiccup bet that the white haired teen didn't feel as hot as his human friend was.

"You need to attack if you want to win!" Jack shouted an advice to Hiccup as the boy was just dodging the snowballs he was throwing.

"Don't tell me what to do!" With this, one of the snowballs Jack had thrown hit Hiccup's face, causing Hiccup to lose his vision for a few seconds. After he had brushed off the snow and was able to see again, Jack was gone. But the snowballs of his were still there, on the other side of the open area, so Hiccup freaked out a bit. Where was he?

"Jack?" He walked over to the snowballs only to find a small peddle next to them. "Jack!" No, no, no, he wouldn't have melted, right? That wasn't possible…right? Hiccup looked around him. This had to be a trap! The brunette tensed, ready to throw the snowball he was holding. Jack would appear any second now…

Well okay, not exactly. Five minutes passed and Jack didn't show up, and Hiccup started to wonder if the peddle before him was really Jack. It couldn't be!

Hiccup was on the edge of tears when he suddenly felt something tangle around his waist and pull him backwards, causing him to fall with a gasp or surprise –and lose his snowball. He heard chuckling from behind him, and as he turned his face he saw Jack standing there, and Hiccup guessed that it had been the spirit's staff's arch that had pulled him.

"That was dirty play", he stated as he stood up, brushing off the dirt from his jeans. Jack just laughed so hard that he couldn't speak for a few seconds, not to mention he had hard time with breathing (do spirits even breathe?)

"I'm s-sorry", Jack managed to stutter between laughs, "but I just…you thought-" he took in a deep breath to calm himself down. Once done, he continued, "-you thought I melted!"

Hiccup was quiet for a few seconds, staring at Jack with a not so amused look. He took one of the snowballs from the pile and before Jack even knew it, Hiccup had placed the snowball to his face, brushing it over a bit before stepping back.

"I won", Hiccup grinned as Jack brushed off the snow and rose his eyebrows.

"Talk about dirty play…"

"You deserved that."

"Okay maybe I did", Jack admitted with a shrug. "Want to have another round or go grab some lunch?"

"Lunch sounds better", Hiccup said, even though the idea of more cold snowballs hitting him in this heat sounded quite tempting. But he was also pretty hungry, and he guessed that so was Toothless.

* * *

They were sitting in silence, listening to the tics and tocs the living room's clock was giving them. Jack was lying down, his head resting on Hiccup's thighs, making said brunette a bit nervous. Hiccup had gotten _a bit _surprised when Jack had suddenly lied down after ten minutes of sitting, but the human boy had been too shy to shift away, so he just had let it go. And to be honest, he didn't mind that Jack was lying there. It was rather cozy, actually; have the spirit lying there, his eyes closed, and Hiccup fought against the urge to stroke the teen's white hair. It looked so silky, so soft.

"What are we going to do now?" Jack asked, keeping his eyes closed. Hiccup blinked in surprise. He had fallen to his thoughts because of the silence in the room, thinking that Jack was asleep, so when Jack suddenly started to talk, it took the freckled boy some moments before his thoughts gathered around and he was able to answer.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"Lie here."

Hiccup swallowed. He hadn't expected a response like that. He had been waiting for an invitation to another snowball fight or something, but instead the spirit wanted to just lie there, on Hiccup's lap. The brunette felt his cheeks heat up a bit, and he hoped that the white haired teen would keep his eyes closed.

But of course he did the exact opposite. Jack opened his eyes slowly, staring at Hiccup. "Or are you not okay with that?" he asked, wondering why Hiccup hadn't answered him, but as he saw the slight color of red on the brunette's cheeks he understood that this was rather awkward. Of course it was, Jack mentally slapped himself. Hiccup had _kissed_ Jack while he had been lying on this very same couch they were sitting on now, so what on Earth had Jack been thinking when he had lied down to rest his head on the brunette's lap?

Just when Jack was about to sit up and apologize for his stupidity of lying down like that as if it was an obvious and totally cool thing to do, Hiccup's words stopped him. "Nah, I'm good."

Well, okay then, Jack smiled to himself and closed his eyes again. It was nice to spend time like _this_: in silence, just relaxing. Lately Jack had been way too stressed about Pitch, about the students having nightmares and being tired, about Hiccup's safety. Hell, he had even seen one of the nightmare creatures some days ago, when it had flew past the dorm those students that no longer lived at home were sleeping in. He had been about to go after it until he had realized that it might have been a trap: a way to lure Jack away from the dorm, from Hiccup. So the spirit had stayed next to the human boy, watch him sleep while keeping himself steady for anything out of the ordinary to happen. Nothing happened, but even since that night Jack had been staying up every night, keeping an eye for the window of Hiccup's bedroom, his staff ready.

It wasn't like it was hard for Jack to stay up, because spirits didn't really _need _sleep, but there was a thing in that: even if he didn't need to sleep whatsoever, it was always positive to catch some sleep every now and then. And because he now couldn't do so, he was feeling…powerless. I mean, of course Jack could attack the nightmares if they would try to approach, but he always had more energy in him if he had slept. And now he didn't. And Jack couldn't sleep during the daytime either, because he didn't want to make Hiccup wonder why Jack was having a nap in the middle of the day –of course Hiccup wouldn't have minded if Jack had slept, but Jack didn't know that-, and so, when Hiccup woke up in the mornings, Jack was lying next to him, pretending to sleep or waking up. Obviously Jack could have slept while Hiccup was at school, but Jack didn't feel so good about that idea: what if Hiccup would get in trouble during school day and Jack would be asleep? Not a very Guardian-like thing to do.

And so, because of all the nights he hadn't slept at all, Jack now fell asleep. It was the warmth coming from Hiccup's body that did that. Jack wasn't used to have someone so close to him _physically_, and lying on someone's lap made him feel safe, like the rest of the world didn't even exist. The winter spirit didn't even realize that his mind was slowly moving from the current moment into the world of dreams when it did.

Hiccup had been deep in his thoughts for a while, thinking about his dad and Astrid and school and Jack, when he felt Jack's body relax even more and how the boy's breathing became stable and soft, and he guessed the spirit had fallen asleep. He laughed through his nose at how calm Jack looked. The spirit was a Guardian and he always acted like one -chasing away bullies from little kids whenever he saw them being picked on, and making sure Hiccup didn't get hurt when he walked through the center of Berk; making sure he didn't get hit by a car or get robbed or anything-, but now that the white haired teen was asleep, he looked so tiny and weak, so vulnerable. Hiccup smiled as he (finally) ran his fingers through Jack's soft hair, humming a bit to keep the guy asleep. Toothless hopped on to the couch, settling himself down on Jack's stomach, purring slightly. Not even this woke the spirit up, and Hiccup had to admire this: whenever Toothless would jump to Hiccup's bed at nights, the boy always woke up for few seconds before drifting off back to sleep.

Hiccup leaned back on the couch, his hand still stroking Jack's hair as he looked at the clock. They still had time to stay like this before dinner, and Hiccup didn't mind, really. It was nice to be like this, even if it was slightly embarrassing: Hiccup knew that this wouldn't help him with finding out whether or not he liked Jack, not at all.

Hiccup sighed as he realized he was only lying to himself: he didn't need to find that out anymore –even if his plan for summer said otherwise-, he knew that he liked Jack. A lot. Jack was important to him. The spirit was the only one that, besides Astrid, was talking to him, considering him as a friend. And Hiccup knew that he was important to Jack, too: the human teen was so far the only one being able to see him –at least in Berk- and it meant a lot to the spirit.

From day one when they had met, Hiccup had seen that even if Jack liked to have fun, the boy also had his serious side –he was a Guardian, after all. The brunette smiled when he remembered the day Jack had saved him from his dad. It had been a close call, really, but thanks to Jack, Hiccup was still there. Well, it was very unlikely that Stoick would have _killed _his son, but it hadn't been all that far.

Talking about families, Hiccup started to wonder if Jack had had any. Like, before coming who he was now? He must have had some sort of family before coming a spirit, because usually spirits were humans before coming spirits, right? Hiccup looked at Jack's face, wondering if he looked like his mother. Did he have siblings? Perhaps. Hadn't he said that he had died many hundred years ago? People that time usually had many kids…

Hiccup was dragged from his thoughts as Toothless started to shift on Jack's stomach, giving the boy a rather annoyed look. "What is it, buddy?" Hiccup reached to pat Jack's stomach to show the cat that it was okay to lie down when he felt something under his hand. "Hm? What's this?" he asked himself (or Toothless) when he stuffed his hand to the pocket of Jack's hoodie, taking out a small item from there and bringing it close to his face. Once Toothless saw that Hiccup had taken care of what was giving the cat a hard time to fall asleep, the black cat lied back down and finally fell asleep.

Jack, on the other hand, had woken up to the cat stepping around on his body. He slowly opened his eyes with a yawn, only to see Hiccup staring at his "center". The freckled boy was turning the small piece of wood around in his fingers, looking at it.

"Where did you find that?" Jack asked, making Hiccup to startle so that the "little Jack" fell from his hands and landed on Jack's chest.

"Gosh, Jack, didn't see you wake up", Hiccup mumbled and watched how Jack took the small item to his hands, looking at it. The piece of wood looked exactly like Jack, and Hiccup wondered what was it for. "Sorry, Toothless couldn't sleep because that was pressing on his stomach…" Hiccup explained, worried that Jack was mad at him for taking it without his permission.

"It's cool", Jack said, only half listening. It was his turn to rotate the item in his hands, and he fell to his thoughts. It felt like eternity had passed since North had given him this.

"Um…", Hiccup started, dragging Jack from his thoughts, "what is it?"

"My center", Jack answered and looked at Hiccup, who was looking at the wooden item in Jack's hands.

"A wooden baby?" he asked, and it made Jack laugh. Hiccup sounded as confused as Jack had sounded back then, in North's room when the man had shown Jack his own center.

"Well, yeah. North gave it to me. It was when I became a Guardian and found out what my purpose is."

"What is it, then?" Hiccup asked, moving his green eyes from the little doll-alike to Jack –only to find the blue eyes staring at him. He cleared his throat as he blushed a bit, waiting for Jack to answer.

The spirit grinned and stuffed the center of his back to his hoodie's pocket, causing Toothless to give him an annoyed look as the cat was forced to wake up and move away. "To have fun, of course", Jack answered

Hiccup laughed. "How didn't I see that coming?" Jack smiled and sat up, allowing Hiccup to move his legs a bit as they started to hurt now that Jack had been lying there for an hour. "So, do you all have your centers?" the freckled boy then asked, meaning the other Guardians.

"Of course."

Hiccup just nodded and said nothing. He didn't really understand any of that Guardian gibberish, but he still found it interesting to hear stories about the other Guardians from Jack. They inspired him with his art –even if Pitch had told him to stop drawing fairies and such. But Hiccup always had time to draw them during his free time, and his teacher couldn't stop him. And besides, now he had the whole summer time to draw whatever he wanted.

"You up for a movie?" Hiccup asked, unsure about what else they could do before dinner time. Luckily Jack didn't seem to mind the idea.

"Sure, why not." Hiccup smiled. Jack was a nice guy, really –he never seemed to mind the ideas of drawing or movies or board games when Hiccup requested them whenever he didn't know what else to do.

Hiccup liked it, really; how Jack spent so much time with him. At least he wouldn't be all alone the whole summer now that Astrid had traveled abroad for a vacation.

"Prepare yourself, Frost, because I have a huge pile of movies to choose from", Hiccup laughed as he walked to the shelf he kept his movies in, secretly smiling to himself at how happy he actually was about Jack's presence.

* * *

**A/N: **Umm wow okay the last part was so confusing? Idk. I'm sorry for my long sentences :P

I wanted to hop straight to summer because then Hiccup and Jack will have more time together and we'll FINALLY get to the MiM-part OTL

**P.S **Inspiration for the "omg Jack did you melt?" from j-analogman69 on tumblr, /post/84313850960/summer-hijack


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Wooo finally the dorks are talking about their feelings to each other!

* * *

_**Chapter 7 – Confessing feelings**_

After spending three weeks on the summer holiday, gathering around his courage, Hiccup finally decided to talk to Jack about his feelings towards the spirit. He wanted to let the boy know that he felt more than friendship between the two before it would be too late –too late as in their friendship would grow that strong that confessing feelings would destroy everything.

Well their friendship was already strong and all -and Hiccup cursed himself for holding back this long- but better late than never, right?. That's what he told himself as he woke up one morning and decided to speak it up.

Hiccup's plan was to wait for _the _perfect moment to talk to Jack. To wait that the spirit was either bored or even still for a moment. The human boy had thought about talking about this and that and then slowly turn the subject into crushes and love and things like that and then just 'hey by the way I like you. A lot.' It probably wasn't the best plan ever to confess your feelings to someone, but Hiccup didn't care: he only wanted Jack to know what his brunette friend felt about him –Hiccup was tired of just acting as if he felt nothing whenever Jack smiled at him or hugged him or snuggled close to him at nights when they were lying on Hiccup's bed. He just wanted to stop keeping it all to himself, because it was tearing him apart. Of course he wanted to tell it as smoothly as possible to prevent Jack from getting startled, but he couldn't wait any longer.

Aside from worrying about what Jack would think, Hiccup was scared to death about how the spirit would _react_ after the 'big news'. Would he be okay with it? Or would he storm out of Hiccup's life? Hiccup swallowed his fear down his throat as he sat up on his bed, looking at Jack who was already wide awake, standing in front of the window. As the spirit heard his friend wake up, he turned his sparkly blue eyes to him and smiled.

"Morning. Had a good sleep?" Hiccup just nodded, forcing his body to get up from his warm and comfortable bed to get some breakfast. As he walked to the kitchen, Hiccup couldn't help but notice that there was something slightly off with Jack. He was usually either very tired or very talkative in the mornings, but now he was neither of those: the winter spirit was fully awake, but didn't talk much. Hiccup wondered what was up with that.

Well, as convenient as it may sound like, Jack had also decided to tell about his feelings to Hiccup. And just like Hiccup, he wondered how the other male would react. Jack was scared that Hiccup would tell him to leave, and that would be something the spirit wouldn't be able to handle –leaving Hiccup I mean. Now that Jack knew that Pitch was a danger and that the nightmares were out there, waiting to strike every student of the school -not to mention the residents of Berk-, the Guardian was completely sure that he couldn't leave the human boy like that, to leave him be vulnerable to attacks. He just couldn't.

Actually he had went that far with fighting with his feelings toward the clumsy brunette teenager that last night, while said boy had been asleep, Jack had flown out of Hiccup's bedroom window, making his way to the roof –he hadn't went any further because it was night and the spirit had feared that if he left, the nightmares would attack Hiccup, too. The white haired teen had sat down and, believe it or not, started talk to the Moon. Even if Jack wasn't the best friend of the Man in the Moon, he always felt like said man was a some sort of big brother to him, guiding him whenever he needed it.

So, Jack had sighed and stared at the huge circle in the sky intensely with his blue eyes, asking the Moon what he thought about such idea that Jack wanted to turn into a human –even if he knew it was absurd and completely impossible; he was dead after all and not even the strongest power in the universe could give him life again.

But the spirit had given it a shot anyways, and had gotten rather…annoyed by the Moon's answer. "What do you mean it's impossible? I mean I _know _it is, but can't you just…" Jack's voice had trailed off as he hadn't known how to continue. He had kept a long silence, knowing that the Moon wouldn't mind –it's not like he would have gone anywhere.

"I just want to stay with him", the Guardian of Fun had finally managed to explain his need to turn into a mortal being. "I know I'm a Guardian and that I can't leave my duty as one and that I'm _dead_, but I really care for him."

Jack had waited patiently for the Moon to answer, to give him a sign or something. "Isn't there any way?" the spirit had pleaded then.

Jack had lied down on the roof, closing his eyes and sighing longingly. "I don't want to be immortal", he had mumbled, mostly to himself, "I don't want to watch him grow old and die, not without me."

Jack had then jumped up, his eyes wide from shock. "What do you- That's not happening!" he had huffed angrily. "I can't just ask him to…die!"

Jack was drawn back from his memories of last night once Hiccup sat down at the table to eat his cereal. Jack had already sat down some moments ago, and the sound of the cereal bowl being placed to the wooden table made him blink and return to the moment.

Hiccup smiled at his friend, asking what was Jack thinking about. Said male just shrugged. "Nothing special." Yeah, 'nothing special' my ass, Jack thought to himself. As if it wasn't important that the Moon had suggested Jack to ask Hiccup if the human wanted to turn into a spirit of some sort. So, technically the Man in the Moon had suggested that Jack would have to ask Hiccup to die. Yeah, nothing special in that.

You might wonder why would the Moon ask such thing –human's lives went as they went, you shouldn't use magic or anything to change them. But in fact the Moon knew how much Jack wanted to be with Hiccup; how the spirit was ready to risk his own health to make sure the human boy wouldn't be in any danger whatsoever; how Jack stayed up at nights to make sure everything went well, that Hiccup didn't get Pitch's nightmares crashing into his bedroom. The Moon knew that Jack was miserable with being immortal, and so the Man was ready to do an exception: to make sure the two boys would have the chance to be together a little longer.

Of course Jack knew that he couldn't just ask Hiccup if the boy wanted to die –that would be rude. The spirit knew that first he would have to tell the boy about his feelings and see what Hiccup would think about said feelings, and then ask about the Moon's idea. Jack knew that it would be a huge shock to the boy: he had a family and friends and a _life_.

"So", Hiccup started, finishing off his cereal, "what do you want to do today?" Jack looked at Hiccup's green eyes and shrugged.

"All up to you."

Hiccup bit his lip, unsure how to act. He could _feel _that Jack was somehow uneasy; he could, in fact, see it from the spirit's eyes. Maybe this sounds stupid and a bit creepy, but Hiccup had watched Jack's blue eyes so much that he could tell when they sparkled more and when less. And now they weren't sparkling at all. They were just…blue.

* * *

The boys decided to spend a peaceful day at home –Hiccup thought that it was a better idea than going out, because he was sure he needed to calm down his mind before talking to Jack. And besides, the spirit seemed to be so deep in his thoughts all the time that Hiccup figured that maybe Jack didn't even want to do anything else than just lie on the couch and watch movies.

And so they did. They watched three movies, and after the fourth one's first song started to play, Hiccup thought that now was his chance: Jack was focused on the movie, so it was perfect –Hiccup could just blurt out his thoughts as if they were a thing every people talked about every day and Jack wouldn't even pay much attention (or, at least so Hiccup thought.)

"Um…Jack?" he started, taking a few breaths to get his thoughts from running in circles around how Jack would soon be yelling at him, telling him that he didn't want Hiccup to fall in love with him –Hiccup's imagination was running wild.

Jack didn't turn his eyes to Hiccup, and neither did Hiccup move his eyes to Jack. They just kept watching the movie as Hiccup continued. "When you were…alive", he mumbled, watching Jack's face from the corner of his eye to see how the spirit reacted to the start of the sentence. Jack seemed to flinch a bit, but said nothing, so Hiccup blurted out a quick "did you fall in love with anyone?"

This got Jack's attention: the spirit pressed 'pause' on the remote, and Hiccup cursed at how badly he had worded the sentence. He didn't mean to get the spirit's full attention to himself! The human teen felt his cheeks turn red slowly as Jack stared at him. "I…don't think so?" Jack answered, rising his eyebrows. The spirit couldn't quite remember whether or not he had felt love towards someone else than his family members back in the days of being a human being, but that wasn't important now. What was important was that Jack was curious why Hiccup was asking such thing, and Hiccup noticed it too: he saw how Jack's eyes filled up with curiosity as the spirit wondered where Hiccup was going to with the question.

"Huh, haha, I see", the brunette laughed awkwardly and hoped that a meteorite would hit him right there and then. He did his best to avoid eye contact with the white haired male, so he kept staring at the TV. "Have you…have you…" Hiccup found it way too hard to get the words to leave his mouth. It felt like the question was stuck in his throat. He had never been this nervous and embarrassed. "Have you ever fallen in love as a spirit?"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, getting somewhat freaked out by the questions Hiccup was shooting at him.

Hiccup swallowed and prayed God that his courage wouldn't flee anywhere. "After waking up as a spirit", he mumbled, "have you fallen in love with anyone?" Hiccup didn't know where exactly was he heading with these questions: he knew that if Jack said "no" his heart would break and that if the spirit said "yes" his heart would break. And besides, he was supposed to just tell the spirit what he felt, not ask questions like this! Hiccup mentally kicked himself about a hundred times before he shut his eyes tight, took a firm grip of the fabric of his shirt and started blabbering.

"I mean I know it's inappropriate to ask that and I'm sorry but I really need to know if spirits are even able to feel love towards anyone but, haha, I don't know where I'm going with this but anyways please forgive my questions…But Jack", Hiccup took a deep breath and then whispered, "I really like you. I've liked you for a long while now. I just wanted to say that."

Hiccup had no idea where he had gotten all the courage to say all that, but it felt so good to let it all out. He sighed and kept his eyes closed, waiting for Jack to gasp in disgust or something. But there was only silence in the living room, and Hiccup started to wonder if Jack had left. He had to open his eyes to see if the spirit was still there. He was, staring at the brunette boy with wide eyes, and Hiccup gulped. Not really the first choice of the expression Hiccup had waited to see.

"Uh, so", he started, his voice only barely there and his mouth dry, "are you going to say…anything?" he trailed off, realizing it was rather rude to ask such thing. He would have to give Jack time to work with the words he had let out. He waited patiently some minutes in silence, watching Jack from the corner of his eye. Jack just sat there, keeping his eyes on Hiccup, and it made the brunette uncomfortable. Why he had to stare like that?

Reason at Jack's blank stare? He was shocked, of course: Hiccup had suddenly said that _he _liked _Jack_, and now Jack wasn't quite sure whether or not he should return the feelings –well of course he should, but the problem was _how _he should do it.

Well fuck it, Jack thought and captured Hiccup into a tight hug, laughing hysterically and startling the poor boy. Hiccup knew that the way Jack was hugging him meant that Jack wasn't laughing at him in a bad way, but he was still quite shocked by how Jack reacted. But he didn't much care about that now, he just wrapped his arms around the winter spirit's body, returning the hug. Jack kept laughing as he hid his face to Hiccup's neck, his snow white hair tickling the brunette.

"We're such dorks", Jack finally stated, explaining his laughter after said laugh had calmed down that much that the teen was able to speak. He never drew back from the hug; he kept his arms around Hiccup and his face in the crook of the smaller boy's neck.

"What do you mean?" Hiccup mumbled, only half caring about whether Jack would even answer him or not. He was over the moon right now so he didn't much care about anything else than the feeling of Jack being so close; Hiccup was happy that Jack had reacted in the exact opposite way than how the human boy had imagined him to react.

"Here we are, liking each other for weeks and not saying anything", Jack half chuckled and half sighed, closing his eyes as he breathed in Hiccup's scent and focused on the warmth coming from the human's body.

In the meanwhile Hiccup almost choked on air. Jack said what now? He liked him too? Hiccup felt the sudden urge to hug the spirit so tight he would choke –but instead the brunette kept his nerve and just focused on breathing like normal people, counting to ten in his head to prevent himself from doing or saying anything stupid. So they just sat there, hugging each other in silence before Hiccup opened his mouth. "So…you like me too?" he asked, just to make sure he had understood Jack right. He felt Jack nod against his neck. And started crying.

The brunette teen let the tears run down his cheeks in silence; he didn't want Jack to know he was crying, but it was his slightly trembling body and the little sniff he accidently gave that gave him away to the spirit. Jack finally drew himself from Hiccup's neck, bringing his face to the same level with the younger boy's, staring at him. "Hic, why are you crying?" he asked, his voice filled with concern. Had he said something wrong? He couldn't understand why there were tears running down Hiccup's face, his green eyes moist and slightly red.

"Sorry", Hiccup laughed a bit between his sniffs, "I'm just so happy. I was…" It was his turn to hide his face to Jack's neck –he didn't feel so embarrassing about this all as Jack couldn't see his face. "I was scared."

"Why?" Jack asked, confused. Why had the boy been scared, it made no sense to him. Had he been scared about Jack's reaction once Hiccup confessed how he felt? Hiccup told him that it was just like that, and Jack couldn't help but to snort a bit. "You're so silly."

"I was sure you would leave", Hiccup sighed, realizing how stupid that thought really was. He felt Jack's hand stroke his auburn hair.

"I'd never." This made Hiccup just cry even more –just when the tears had stopped. He just felt beyond happy about how everything turned out well in the end; how Jack liked him too and how the spirit wasn't going anywhere; how Hiccup had finally had the courage to say his feelings out loud and how it had been completely worth it.

Jack pushed Hiccup back by his shoulders to force the boy to look at him in the eyes. They both smiled and Hiccup even laughed a bit as he wiped away the tears. He knew it was stupid to cry but he just couldn't help it. Jack smiled warmly and brought his other hand to Hiccup's cheek, stroking it with his thumb, and this made Hiccup laugh even more.

"Why do you look so worried?" he asked, studying Jack's blue eyes. They were filled with happiness, but they also looked rather concerned. Jack just shrugged and said he didn't know, even though he knew very well why: now that he knew Hiccup liked him too, it would be even harder for him to lie to the human teen. 'Lie' as in not tell him who his art teacher really was and what was he up to with the 'things like this don't exist'-notes.

But then again, there was a bright side in this: not only that Hiccup _liked _him, it would now be easier for Jack to tell about the conversation with the Man in the Moon and how said Moon had suggested to turn Hiccup into a spirit of some sort –even if it required the human to die. And then again, this was just another thing that made Jack worried: even if he knew the Moon knew what he was doing, there was a silent voice in the back of the spirit's head telling him that something could always go wrong –Hiccup could die but never wake up again. Jack could lose the human boy forever. And forever would be a fucking long time when you were immortal.

"So, uh, what now?" Hiccup mumbled, biting his lip and turning his eyes from Jack. Only now he realized that he had actually told Jack about his feelings and that Jack had returned said feelings -and that how close the spirit actually was. They had been hugging for what felt like eternity, and after this realization Hiccup felt his cheeks heat up a bit and he could tell that they were turning red.

Jack laughed through his nose and shrugged, giving Hiccup an innocent face. "How about a second kiss?" he asked, smiling as he purposely admitted that he knew about the first kiss –if you could call a peck to the corner of his mouth a kiss.

Hiccup blushed crimson as he stuttered, "What do you mean 'second'?"

Jack grinned and then ruffled Hiccup's hair. "I was awake when you kissed me back then."

"Oh my god!" was all Hiccup managed to gasp out before he fully drew himself back from the hug, hiding his face in his hands and mumbling a "so embarrassing" through them.

Jack chuckled and grabbed Hiccup's wrists to take his hands away from his face. "Aw come on, it was cute!"

"It wasn't!" Hiccup cried out, "I thought you were asleep and you weren't and oh god what was I even thinking?"

"You just wanted to show me some love, what's wrong with that?" Jack asked, smiling. He found Hiccup's embarrassment adorable.

Hiccup, however, didn't find it funny at all that Jack had been awake at that moment. The human boy hadn't been really thinking clearly back then; he blamed the distraction on Jack's beautiful face. That damn face that had made him kiss said face. Hiccup wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

Jack rolled his eyes at how Hiccup did his best to take his hands back to hide his blush behind them. So, to stop Hiccup from thinking that the little peck the brunette had given the spirit was somewhat wrong, Jack took a hold of Hiccup's chin with his thumb and forefinger and tilted his head back slightly, placing a quick, gentle kiss to the human's warm, soft lips with his cold ones.

"Now we're even and there's nothing you should be embarrassed about", Jack smiled as he broke the kiss, keeping the distance between the two boys' faces very small, though. Hiccup grunted and closed his eyes.

"I hate you, you stupid winter spirit."

Jack sighed in amusement and whispered, "You just told me you like me."

"Shut up", was Hiccup's response before he leaned back in, feeling Jack's cold lips against his again. The kiss was light at first, until Jack kissed back with more force than before. The kiss what somewhat clumsy -but not sloppy, however.

While kissing Jack, Hiccup's brain made the final click about the situation. He realized that he was _kissing _the spirit, and this time it was a proper kiss and they were both into it; Jack was kissing him back, after all. The brunette smiled into the kiss, his mind wandering off to the moment when he had pecked the corner of the white haired spirit's mouth, how he had felt the coldness. But it had been nothing like _this_. Back then it had been a quick kiss, like Hiccup had been doing something illegal –or like he would have been ripping off a plaster as quickly as possible to minimize the pain. Now it was a proper kiss with a whole bunch of different emotions like happiness, embarrassment and love; a kiss that meant something huge for both, the human and the spirit.

Meanwhile Jack was also feeling something he hadn't felt in many hundred years: love. I mean, of course he had been crushing on Hiccup for weeks now, but the kiss was what kind of like sealed the whole thing –the Guardian now knew that Hiccup was his one and only, the beloved one he had thought he would never meet (taking his invisibility into account.) Jack didn't ever want to draw back from the kiss, he just wanted to keep feeling the warmth on his cold lips; keep feeling Hiccup smile against them; keep feeling that Hiccup was _there_.

But of course, like all kisses, this one ended as Hiccup needed some air and he broke the kiss, panting slightly –not like the kiss had taken _that _much oxygen from his lungs, but he was also panting from embarrassment. The human smiled as he rested his forehead against Jack's, watching the boy with his green eyes, Jack staring back with his blue ones. And now they were sparkling. More than ever, actually.

Both boys were dragged back to Earth from their spell that had made silence land between them after the kiss as Hiccup's phone started to play melodies on the coffee table. Hiccup didn't move at first –he wanted to stay where he was, his forehead against Jack's, their body temperatures mixing together. But he knew that he had to pick up, it could be his dad or Astrid, so he sighed and reached out for the phone. Jack leaned back on the couch and like that the spell was completely gone: there was no more electricity in the air, even if the two teens still shot each other loving glances as Hiccup answered the phone.

"Hello?" It had been an unknown number calling him, but as the person at the other end started talking, he recognized the voice to be Astrid's mother. Jack gave Hiccup a questionable look as the boy turned pale, but Hiccup didn't see that –he was blankly staring at the coffee table, breathing heavily. "What?"

* * *

**A/N: **The only thing I'll say is that shit will hit the fan eue

Okay see you in the next chapter~


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **I'm so sorry, okay

* * *

_**Chapter 8 – Dark days**_

"Hiccup, you have to eat something."

"I'm not hungry."

"Hiccup please, just eat _something_."

"I said I'm not h-"

"Please."

Hiccup sighed, took the apple Jack was offering him and took a bite of it in silence. Jack sat down next to him to the couch, relieved that Hiccup finally gave in and ate something, after several hours of the winter spirit trying to give him different options of food with the brunette taking absolutely nothing.

As the human boy continued to finish off his apple, his thoughts wandered off to a moment that had stopped his whole life three days ago. He remembered everything so clearly, yet the memories were very blurry at the same time. Hiccup remembered how he had answered the phone, confused with who was calling him from an unknown number –he usually didn't receive such calls. He remembered how he had recognized Astrid's mother's weepy and hoarse voice, and how he had already guessed that something bad had happened the moment he heard a sniff come from the other end of the call as Mrs. Hofferson's tried to calm down her shaking voice. Hiccup remembered how he had stared blankly at the coffee table, how the world around him had stopped as he had repeated "what" over and over and over again. He remembered himself hanging up some minutes afterwards and collapsing into Jack's arms, crying hysterically as the spirit tried to ask what was wrong –without getting an answer.

"Hiccup", he heard Jack's voice call from the distance, and his mind slowly returned to the moment. He blinked a few times and felt his cheeks get wet as tears ran down.

"Hiccup, you shouldn't think about it", Jack whispered and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, pulling him closer to comfort him. He slowly stroked Hiccup's auburn hair and let the boy sob into his shoulder.

"Jack I…I can't go", Hiccup managed to mumble between the loud sobs. His whole body was trembling, he couldn't stop it. The half eaten apple fell to the floor but Hiccup didn't much pay attention to it. "I can't go", he said again and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

Jack didn't say anything at first, he just kept hugging the human boy and humming random melodies at him to calm him down. Once Hiccup's body relaxed a bit and the sobs quieted down, Jack said "You have to."

Hiccup shook his head furiously and pulled back from Jack's hold. "No, Jack, you don't understand", he said with a rather angry tone. Hiccup was tired of this all, he felt like nothing meant anything anymore except for the fact that Jack was still with him. "My only friend is lying in a coffin and they're asking me to go look at it!" The human felt the tears burn in his eyes again but he fought against them. "I can't watch Astrid being buried!" He then leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes, returning to the day his friend's mother had called him to tell him the bad news. He could still hear the woman's voice in his head.

"Hiccup, something awful has happened." A sniff. "Astrid…Astrid got into an accident." Another sniff. "S-she passed away, Hiccup." Then the girl's mother had started crying uncontrollably and Hiccup had heard Astrid's father take the phone as the woman had been unable to speak.

Hiccup's chest felt tight as he remembered how Astrid's parents had asked him to come to the funeral. Maybe say a few words about her. And Hiccup wasn't ready to do either of those. He didn't want to go see Astrid's pale face as she was lying in the coffin; he didn't want to see his friend disappear to the ground in said coffin; he didn't want to tell the girl goodbye. Astrid had been the only friend Hiccup had had in ten years, and damn she had been a good one: she had always stood up for Hiccup if she saw her friend being bullied; she had always helped Hiccup with homework; she had always praised Hiccup's art when the boy was unsure if it looked good. Hiccup…he wasn't ready to let go of all that.

"Have you thought about the speech?" Jack asked, trying not to push Hiccup too much. He kept the distance this time, careful not to touch the boy. The spirit knew that Hiccup was shocked and that he needed his time to recover –it was like this every day: first Hiccup needed a hug and then got mad and started crying. That's how it worked.

The brunette teen shook his head and sighed. "No, I haven't." He then opened his green eyes and looked at Jack. "What am I going to do?"

"It's going to be fine."

"How, Jack?" Hiccup asked. "How is it going to be fine? Astrid was my friend!"

"I know." Jack shifted closer to Hiccup so that their shoulders were touching and rested his hand on the younger boy's knee. "I know."

What else was he supposed to say? From what Jack had overheard from the conversation between Hiccup and Astrid's parents, Astrid had been complaining how tired she had been and how she just couldn't keep her eyes open; how the girl had been so tired that she hadn't even seen the loose plank on the dock she had been walking on –she and her parents had been abroad in a seacoast city and Astrid had been admiring the sunset on the dock- and how she had tripped to it, falling from the dock and hitting her head to the rocks that had been under the surface. And of course Jack knew that her tiredness was because of the nightmares she had been having –apparently Astrid hadn't told about them to her parents or to Hiccup or to _anyone_, she had just told them that she was tired, that's all.

Never before had Pitch's nightmares caused _deaths_. This was the first time. And even more than being terrified from that, Jack was terrified from that the one to die was Astrid. And Jack felt guilty as hell. If he had told Hiccup about what Pitch truly was, if he had told the human that Astrid was tired because of the nightmares, Astrid might have been alive now. Jack knew that it was almost completely his fault that Hiccup's best friend was dead. And he couldn't get himself to admit it to the boy. He just couldn't. They had just confessed their feelings and everything was _perfect_, so obviously the spirit was concerned about what would happen once Hiccup would find out that with the winter spirit telling the boy what was going on, Astrid life would have been saved.

He was one lousy Guardian, Jack knew it. He had been selfish about not worrying Hiccup even if the boy's friend had been having nightmares. He had been selfish about not telling the other Guardians about Pitch's plan. He had been selfish, and he disgusted himself. He would have to tell Hiccup the truth.

* * *

The funeral was on that same evening. Jack only barely managed to get Hiccup dressed to his suit and call his dad about what was going on. Stoick had sounded sympathetic and Jack guessed that it had put some courage into Hiccup, because after hanging up the phone Hiccup had seemed a bit…different. He had eaten an actual dinner without Jack forcing the food into his mouth and given Toothless attention without bawling into the cat's fur.

They left the apartment in silence. Hiccup had insisted on walking to the church, much to Astrid's parents' disappointment –they had wanted the young boy to come with them, in a car. But Hiccup had just shaken his head and told them a nice "no thank you" before hanging up the phone and walking to the front door.

"Don't worry Hiccup", Jack had said before he had taken Hiccup's hand to his own, squeezing it gently. "I'll be there with you." Hiccup had smiled weakly and kissed Jack's cheek with a quiet "thank you."

As they walked down the road, still in silence, Hiccup found himself calming down a bit since the afternoon –he guessed it was because of the shock. The closer they came to the church, the more relaxed his body seemed to become, and he was afraid that his legs wouldn't be able to carry him up the stairs of the church. But they did, and Hiccup squeezed his eyes shut for some seconds as he reached the top step while Jack's hand stroked his shoulder.

Before stepping in, Hiccup went to have a talk with Astrid's parents who were standing in the doorway, talking to the people Hiccup hardly recognized –some people from his school and some relatives Hiccup had seen from the pictures Astrid had shown him.

"Hiccup!" Astrid's mother smiled and pulled the brunette boy into a tight hug. "I'm glad you came."

Yes, Hiccup had decided that, just like Jack had said, he would _have to _go to the funeral. It would have been inappropriate and rude to not show up to his best friend's funeral. "I'm so sorry for your loss", he mumbled, not sure about what else he could say. He felt very, _very _sad, so he could only imagine how the blonde girl's parents must have felt like.

"Will you say a word or two?" Astrid's father asked and then shook an old lady's hand as she walked to them, telling them how sorry she was.

"Yes", Hiccup replied once the lady was gone. Jack smiled a little at Hiccup's back. He was glad that the boy had taken control of himself and decided to show respect to his friend. There hadn't been one second that the winter spirit would have doubt Hiccup's love for Astrid, so he had known that Hiccup would keep the speech, even if the human was scared that he would start crying uncontrollably during it.

"It's okay if you cry", Jack had reasoned him when Hiccup had told the spirit that he was nervous, while the brunette boy had been preparing a small paper for the speech, "they will understand it."

"Thank you", Astrid's mother then said and gave Hiccup the schedule of the young girl's funeral. "Your turn if after the priest has prayed."

"Okay", Hiccup nodded and took the schedule to his hands and then smiled a brave smile to the couple, giving them a hug before entering the church.

"I'll stay in the back", Jack whispered before stopping on his heels, stepping next to the back wall. Hiccup looked behind his shoulder and shot his friend a rather confused and annoyed look, but understood why Jack didn't want to sit next to him: he would only get someone sitting through him during the whole funeral, and Hiccup was sure it wouldn't feel nice.

Hiccup walked to the fourth row, not wanting to sit in the very front: he was sure that even if the Hoffersons considered him as a family member because of his and Astrid's strong relationship, he should stay a bit behind –he didn't want all of them to see how he cried, how he showed that he was weak (even though Jack had told him that crying would be totally fine; they were in a funeral, after all.)

The boy sat down in silence and waited for the hell to begin. He was so sure that emotions would break loose and he would cry like a little baby. But as the priest walked to the front and started talking, Hiccup's body relaxed again and instead of crying, every pore in him focused on the priest -a young woman who was talking to the coffin that was resting in the front of the church.

Once Hiccup's eyes had moved from the priest to the coffin, he couldn't take them off it. The coffin was black and very fancy looking, not very Astrid's style but yet very much her style. It was covered in flowers and ribbons, and Hiccup wondered what had made him do the decision that he wouldn't bring any roses to Astrid. Maybe it was because he thought that placing a flower on top of the coffin made it official that Astrid was dead and that Hiccup wouldn't see her again; that he wouldn't hear her joke about Hiccup's weird crushes and then laugh; that he wouldn't talk with her about life. He wasn't completely sure.

As the priest then asked for relatives to come say goodbye to Astrid and place some more flowers to the coffin, Hiccup swallowed. As he watched the Hoffersons go to the coffin, Astrid's father holding Astrid's mother to prevent the woman from collapsing to the floor, Hiccup felt how panic was finally rising from his chest. Soon it would be his turn to go there and take a look at Astrid's beautiful face, her blonde hair and peaceful being. Then it would be the turn for the pray and then Hiccup would have his speech -which scared him even more.

Once close relatives went back to their seats, it was friends' and distant relatives' turn. Hiccup included. As he stepped to the hallway and prepared himself for seeing Astrid perhaps for the last time, he turned his gaze to the back of the church to check out on Jack. Unlike usually, now Jack wasn't leaning against the wall lazily; he was standing firmly on both feet, his back straight and staff next to his body. Even if Jack was quite far away, Hiccup could see him smile an encouraging smile at the human boy, and Hiccup smiled back before walking to the coffin.

Astrid was just as beautiful as always. She was dressed in a black dress that had a blue ribbon on the front, on her chest. Her hair was in its usual braid, tied with a blue ribbon that was identical with the dress' ribbon. To Hiccup it looked like she was just sleeping –how painfully ironic, compared to the circumstances she had died in. She looked so peaceful, so calm. As if she would wake up any second and give the people a confused face about everyone being gathering around her, crying.

Hiccup slid his hand along the coffin, trying not to look straight at Astrid too much. He felt his chest tighten up again and he knew that he would burst into tears if he wouldn't return to his seat immediately. So, he gave his friend a final, warm look before heading back to his seat, slumping down to it. He just couldn't believe what was happening. Seeing Astrid lie there in the coffin only made him realize that she was actually gone. Permanently.

At the back of the church Jack was watching the ceremony, deep in his thoughts. He saw how people took turns to say goodbye to the teenage girl, some of the crying, some of them not –perhaps because of the shock. The spirit saw how it obviously took Hiccup all his will not to cry, and he felt the sting of guilty in his chest again –for the thousand time since Astrid had passed away. As the clock went on and so did the ceremony, Jack only got more and more determined about that he should wait for the right opportunity for telling the truth to Hiccup. He knew that he shouldn't do it today, not tomorrow; Hiccup had just lost an important person, and Jack was sure that he wouldn't be ready to lose the other one any time soon –I mean that Jack was sure that Hiccup would get mad at the spirit and close him out of his life once the Guardian told him what had caused Astrid's dead.

Jack sighed and watched how Hiccup was squirming a bit in his seat –the priest was saying her pray and that meant that soon it would be Hiccup's turn to walk to the front and speak to the church. Jack had no idea what Hiccup was about to talk about, but the white haired spirit was sure that it would be something touching; something that came straight from the human boy's heart. The Guardian of Fun gave another encouraging smile at Hiccup once the boy walked to the front and looked at Jack again. He stepped behind the microphone and kept his green eyes at Jack the whole time. All the way to the back Jack could see Hiccup take in a deep breath before he started.

"I…" Hiccup kept a pause. The whole church was silent and Hiccup's breathing was clearly hearable because of the microphone. Hiccup closed his eyes for brief seconds, and when he opened them again, he stuffed the note he had prepared for the speech to his pocket and then continued.

"When Astrid's mother called me three days ago and told me what had happened, I couldn't believe what I heard. My Astrid, gone? I remember asking 'what, what' multiple times." Hiccup smiled. "Astrid…She is dear to me. I love her. She was my dear friend, has been for years now. She has always been there, by my side, no matter the situation. She stood up for me when I got bullied, she was there for me." Jack saw tears glitter in Hiccup's green eyes, but they never fell to the boy's cheeks. "I wish it would have been possible for us to graduate from school together, to go to university together…She always had these big dreams, just like I had. We were supposed to stay together."

The people in the church gave sympathetic nods as Hiccup continued. "I know Astrid will always stay in our memories and our hearts. She'll remain in our thoughts. We just need to accept the fact that we can't _see _her anymore." Hiccup gave the now closed coffin a loving gaze and a warm smile. "I love you, Astrid. I hope you rest in peace now."

The priest said one more pray while Hiccup returned to his seat. He was surprised he hadn't cried, even though the tears had been burning his eyes furiously during the speech. The pallbearers were asked to come to the coffin. The people in the church stood up as Astrid was carried down the hallway, and then they followed the coffin. Once Hiccup walked to the back of the door, Jack joined him and wrapped his cold arm around the shorter boy.

"You did well", he whispered as they followed the rest of the people outside. It was a sunny day, nothing like in the movies where it rains hard during funerals.

"Let's go home after this", Hiccup whispered back. He knew the Hofferson family held a memorial in their house afterwards, but he didn't feel like going –even though he knew it was somewhat rude not to go. Hiccup just wanted to go home, snuggle into Jack's hold and fall asleep, forget about this misery.

The people were walking to the cemetery, all of them in silence. The silence continued all the way through the last prays and when Astrid was placed down to the grave. Some more flowers were put down to the grave and like that everyone said their final goodbyes to the girl that had died too young.

* * *

Two weeks passed with every day being identical with each other: Hiccup woke up in the morning, watched movies with Jack, maybe went for a little walk if the weather was good, watched some more movies and then went back to sleep. He ate only a little and it scared the winter spirit. Jack didn't like what he saw: the human boy was pale and had dark circles under his eyes. The Guardian was glad that at least Hiccup spoke something –even if he didn't much say anything about Astrid, even though Jack had told him that talking about how Hiccup felt about his friend's death would make it feel better.

Jack didn't feel that good about this. He saw how much Hiccup was suffering, and that's why he just delayed telling the truth as days passed. The spirit was waiting for a perfect moment but it never seemed to come: whenever him and the brunette human teen were snuggled up on the couch or the bed, Hiccup always said something that made Jack close his mouth just when he was about to tell his friend about Pitch.

So he used his time to comfort Hiccup, to be there for him. Jack gave him gentle kisses when the boy woke up, when they were watching movies, when the boy went to sleep. He remembered to smile as much as he could to remind Hiccup that Astrid's death wasn't the end of the world –even if it might have looked like it at some times. His fingers brushed against Hiccup's warm skin every now and then, and Jack knew it calmed the teen down; Hiccup was visibly more relaxed whenever he was only inches away from Jack.

And it scared the spirit. It scared him how Hiccup's mental recovery seemed to depend on how close Jack was. And what if after Jack speaking up about Pitch and Hiccup getting mad? Would Hiccup even recover? These questions bothered Jack, they bothered him oh so much, and that made him delay everything even more. But still, the little voice in the back of his head kept telling him that he should tell Hiccup –he should have done it a long while ago. And so, on a rainy Wednesday when he and Hiccup were watching a movie, the words left Jack's mouth without him even realizing it –he blamed it on the emotions the movie was bringing up.

"Hiccup, we need to talk." And just like that, without meaning to, Jack had started it. Hiccup turned his gaze to his immortal friend, pausing the movie. He looked somewhat worried about Jack's serious tone.

"Sure. What is it?" Jack silently cursed his mouth in his head. No going back now. Suddenly the floor they were sitting on felt harder than usually and the room spun around a little bit.

Jack swallowed. "Promise me to listen to what I have to say until I'm finished."

Hiccup was confused. Jack sounded so serious that it scared the brunette a bit. The spirit was rarely dead serious about anything, and right now the tone the white haired male was giving the human wasn't exactly what said human wanted to hear. He had barely gotten somewhat over Astrid's death, and he surely wasn't ready for more bad news. "Jack, you're freaking me out. What's wrong?"

"Promise me", Jack just said sharply. Was the spirit biting his lower lip? Hiccup frowned but nodded his head and waited in silence for Jack to tell him what was up with him. Jack took in a deep breath and then looked straight into Hiccup's green eyes with his icy blue ones.

"I know what caused Astrid's tiredness." Hiccup's face immediately fell. "I should have told you this a long time ago but I didn't want to worry you." The human boy didn't like where this was going. It sounded really, _really _bad.

"Pitch isn't a teacher. He's the King of Nightmares, an enemy of the Guardians. Has been for hundreds of years. A few years back we defeated him –or, so we thought. Now he has seemed to gather back his powers by acting like a human, working with children. Hiccup, the notes he has written to your drawings…they are meant to stop you from believing in fairytales." Jack kept a pause to calm down his beating heart.

"I visited the others the day you got detention. That's why I disappeared. We agreed that I would observe the situation and then tell the others what Pitch was up to. But when I saw the nightmares in Berk I…I never went back. I never went to tell them what I knew. I didn't want to leave you in danger. And I didn't tell you because I thought you would be more vulnerable for attacks if you were stressed out."

Hiccup found it hard to breathe. The more Jack talked, the more heavier Hiccup's breath became. He felt sick. The spirit continued, deciding that once he had started it, he should let it all out. "Astrid was having nightmares, Hiccup. That's why she was so tired that se tripped over."

Jack seemed like he was about to cry. Actually, for the first time ever, Hiccup saw actual tears glitter in the other's eyes. "I'm so sorry, Hiccup. I should have told you."

There was a silence that lasted for several minutes. Hiccup was just staring at Jack, his mind blank. Jack was staring back at him, waiting for a reaction. Finally, after ten minutes, he got one.

Hiccup stood up, looking down at Jack with wet, furious eyes. The green orbs were almost on fire. "So you're telling me that Astrid died because of your selfishness?" Hiccup couldn't believe it. He had thought Jack was supposed to be a Guardian, _guarding _people. "She died like a drunkard, Jack!"

Jack also stood up, reaching out a hand to put it to Hiccup's shoulder, but the boy backed away. "Hiccup, I'm so sorry."

"It's your fault she's dead! If you had told me, I would have been able to help her sleep and she would be alive!" Jack didn't say anything because he couldn't argue with that. Hiccup was completely right.

The human boy felt his freckled cheeks get wet as he started crying. "Get out."

"What?"

"Get out!" Hiccup snapped, this time so loudly that Toothless jumped up –the cat had been asleep- and hid under the coffee table. Hiccup took Jack's hand and lead him to the bedroom, forcing him to the window. Jack tried to stop Hiccup, but couldn't do so –the boy was surprisingly powerful while mad.

"Hiccup, please!" Jack tried once he was standing in front of the open window, Hiccup in front of him. Their feet got wet as there was a small paddle on the floor because of the rain –Hiccup had forgotten to close the window when it had started to rain. "I didn't mean this to happen!"

"I don't care", Hiccup sniffed and pushed Jack out of the window. The spirit only barely managed to catch his balance with the wind instead of falling down to the ground.

"Hiccup, I love you", Jack whispered. The rain made him get wet in only a few seconds, but he didn't care -the tears would be running down his face and making it wet anyways. "I just wanted to keep you safe."

"Save me from your excuses", Hiccup said coldly and firmly stared at Jack, taking a hold of the window with his hands to close it. "They can't bring Astrid back."

Jack watched the window being closed, unable to stop Hiccup because of the sadness and guilt he was feeling. The last thing he saw was Hiccup's miserable and angry face before the boy pulled the blue curtains over the window. Jack had seen this coming, this whole act of Hiccup kicking him out.

Even though the window being close and the heavy rain falling down, Jack could still hear Hiccup's shout. "I don't want to see you ever again!"

* * *

**A/N: **[throws cookies at you] I said I was sorry! ;A;

Anyways, once again I want to point out that I didn't do this to Astrid because I'm lazy with writing about her; I did this because it's a major part of the plot.

Also, I've never been to funerals before (lucky me?), so I have absolutely no idea how the things in there work...So I'm sorry if the funeral-part is somehow off.

Things are getting heated! See you in the next chapter! ;)

**P.S **Thank you for the nice reviews (and favs and follows), I love you guys~!


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9 – First move**_

When Hiccup woke up the following morning after kicking Jack out, he felt like…well, he felt nothing. He felt _empty_. He lied there, on his bed, staring at the ceiling for about an hour after his dreams were rudely interrupted by Toothless jumping to his bed and crawling next to him, purring loudly. He didn't felt like doing anything.

Hiccup's thoughts, despite his attempts of stopping them, wandered off to the memories from yesterday –once again. The human boy just couldn't believe it. The only thing that kept repeating in his head was that Astrid could have been saved. Maybe. Most likely. And Hiccup couldn't help but to be mad at the winter spirit for not telling him. He was a Guardian, for God's sake! He should have done _something _in order to save a life! Hiccup felt irritation make his head ache and he groaned, closing his eyes.

Truth to be told, Hiccup felt bad for forcing Jack to leave. Of course he did. Not only that he now felt vulnerable and unsafe because of what Jack had told him about Pitch, the brunette also missed the other. They had gotten so close in the past few months, so how was he supposed to just forget Jack after telling him to leave? To just forget his feelings towards the spirit? It was so unfair. Just when Hiccup had gotten the courage to confess his feelings and Jack even returning them, everything went to hell.

But what else was he supposed to do? Forgive Jack all the secrets he had kept from Hiccup all these weeks? Forgiving didn't much seem like an option to the freckled boy. Not even close. Hiccup was more mad at the spirit than sad about him not being present anymore, so even if his heart kept telling him to go look for him and ask him to come back, he decided to go with his mind. Mind, that told him that without Jack keeping the truth hidden, Astrid would still be alive. Hiccup immediately stopped his train of thoughts there –he had promised himself not to think about Astrid too much, in order to keep himself from mentally collapsing.

The boy groaned again and stumbled out of his bed, causing Toothless to meow in annoyance as his dream was disturbed. Hiccup smiled and scratched his cat's head a bit, glad that at least Toothless was still with him and so he wasn't completely alone. Once Toothless had put his head down again, Hiccup walked to his armchair that rested in the corner of the bedroom and picked up his clothes that had been put there last night –really, Hiccup didn't even use the armchair other than as a place to put his clothes to.

While getting dressed, Hiccup's phone vibrated angrily on the nightstand, telling Hiccup that someone was calling him. Great, just what he needed –having to talk to someone at ten in the morning. He finished dressing up and went to his phone, picking it up, not bothering to look who was calling him. "Hello."

"Morning, Hiccup." Oh wow, amazing. Couldn't his father had picked a better timing to call him? Hiccup immediately knew what was up: Stoick was calling him to apologize for what had happened the last time the man had visited his son, just like he always did –first they had a fight, sometimes even physical, and then some weeks later Stoick would call him and tell him that he hadn't meant anything. And now with Astrid passing away, Stoick was most like to also check on how Hiccup was handling it.

And yes, Hiccup was right. As soon as he had also told his father a 'good morning', said man started to blabber about if Hiccup was feeling okay and that everything would be okay. Hiccup smiled to himself a bit –after a long while, actually. He knew that his father loved him, no matter what –even if his son was swinging the other way that the father had been hoping for. Although Stoick was a strict man and sometimes even scary, his son knew that he always had a special place in his father's heart –Stoick just didn't show it all that often. But Hiccup didn't mind, he never had. He had gotten used to the way Stoick treated him because every time the man apologized afterwards, and that's what counted the most, at least to Hiccup.

"I'm fine, dad", he convinced his father after the man was finished with telling Hiccup that he needed to rest and calm down and if necessary, come to live with him for the summer. Really, even if Hiccup knew Stoick meant nothing but good, he didn't really want to go live with him for the rest of his holiday. One because he knew they would get along for the first few days but then start fighting, and two because with Hiccup being depressed about Astrid, Stoick would only be reminded of what had happened to his wife and Hiccup's mother –and Hiccup didn't want to be that person who brought those memories back to the man.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Hiccup heard Stoick sigh and relief. The man had obviously been worried for his son; Hiccup had already heard it from the man's voice yesterday when his father had called him before the funeral. "How did the funeral go?" Stoick then asked.

"Pretty good. How do funerals usually go."

"Hm." Then there was a long silence, and Hiccup sat down to his bead. He felt awkward, really. He wanted to cry and tell his father that he was miserable about losing his friend, to hear the man tell him encouraging words –and yet, at the same time, he just wanted to hang up and go watch movies, close the world around him from his life. "Well, you have Jack there, right? Sure he can be there for you."

Hiccup almost choked on air. Had Stoick just said that? Stoick, who had been trying to "turn" Hiccup back to a straight guy after hearing that his son liked men? Stoick, who had tried to beat the gay out of him? Stoick, who had almost choked his own son as he had been desperate to know if Jack had been in Hiccup's apartment or not? Now that same man was there, at the other end of the phone, telling Hiccup that Jack could be Hiccup's mental support. Hiccup blinked and then mumbled a 'yeah', knowing that his voice was way too sad for it to be true that Jack would be there. Because he wouldn't. Hiccup was all alone now. And Stoick heard it from his son's voice.

"He is there, right?" he asked, suspicion clear in his tone. Hiccup swallowed.

"Yeah. I mean he's not _here _but he's…Yeah, he's here." Hiccup bit his lip. Why did he suddenly feel so sad? Jack had kept the truth from him, he deserved to be kicked out of the human boy's life! So why did Hiccup get the sudden urge to run outside and call for the spirit to come back –the brunette boy was sure that Jack would be somewhere near the dorm as Pitch's nightmares were out there and all that. "I'll manage, dad", he then added, surprised that he was able to say that with a completely calm voice, even if his mind doubted his own words –he was far from sure that he would manage. "Listen, I have to go."

"You know that you can call me any time, right?"

"Yes, dad. Thanks."

Then they hung up and Hiccup collapsed to his back. Fuck, this wasn't meant to happen. Hearing his own dad ask him if Jack was there for him now that the boy needed him the most had only reminded the human that Jack really wasn't there anymore. And suddenly the bedroom –no, strike that, _the whole apartment_- felt empty. Jack had been an amazing support to Hiccup ever since he had heard about Astrid's death, that's for sure. And Hiccup felt a sting in his heart, again reminding him that he should go look for the boy.

"I'm not going to do that", he told himself out loud. Wow, now he was even going crazy; talking to himself and all. But he needed to remind himself that he was _mad _at the spirit, that he didn't want to see him anymore.

…Was it really like that, or was Hiccup just telling himself that and ignoring the truth that was in his heart: that he really missed the spirit and wanted to have him there again, cuddling with him and planting gentle kissed to his head, telling the brunette that everything would be fine?

* * *

"Ah, Hiccup! You going to see Astrid?"

The old lady behind the desk was smiling lovingly while she looked at the rose Hiccup was holding.

Hiccup nodded and gave the lady the coins he had took our from his trousers' pocket. "Yeah. I didn't bring any flowers to the funeral."

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Hiccup."

"Yeah", was all Hiccup managed to say. Even if he really _really _liked the old lady that was the owner of the flower shop located not so far from his school (and the graveyard), he was getting tired of the hurtful looks and sympathetic smiles and- Well, Hiccup just wanted to avoid any contact with people who felt pity towards the art student. Poor boy, losing his only friend and blah blah. It annoyed Hiccup, although he knew the people who told him they were sorry meant nothing but good.

As Hiccup walked out of the flower shop, he thanked his luck that the rain had stopped somewhere in the middle of the night –an hour or two after Jack had left. Now the air smelled really fresh and the sun was shining brightly –one of Hiccup's favorite weathers. It always felt so nice after rain, when the sun came out and the world was all freshened up. The weather was keeping Hiccup's mood a little bit higher than depressed as he entered the graveyard, earning a loud creak from the old and rusty gate.

Hiccup walked down the path that went between the graves. Hiccup had never liked graveyards and he probably never would. They only brought him back memories from his mother's funeral –the only funeral Hiccup had ever attended if you don't count the funeral held for Astrid. Hiccup had been so little back then, but he still remembered _everything_. People's sad faces, his _dad's _sad face. And the brunette boy had sworn himself not to enter graveyards ever again unless it was absolutely necessary.

And now it was. Hiccup had realized that he was in debt for Astrid –without the girl's good advice on how to figure out his feelings towards Jack, he might have never gotten any courage to say his feelings out loud. And now he wanted to thank her.

Once Hiccup found his way to Astrid's grave, he sighed in relief: there were no others there. The grave was filled with flowers and ribbons and small angel statues, and Hiccup had a hard time to find a place to put the rose he had brought with him to. Once he had placed the rose to rest there with the others, he settled himself down to the warm grass –he was happy that the sun had dried the grass from the night's rain-, sitting in front of the grave with his legs crossed.

"Hey, Astrid", he started, and then realized that it was quite funny how he was always either talking to a spirit no one else could see or then to a dead person. "I just wanted to come say hello. And bring you a rose."

Yes, Hiccup hadn't brought a rose to the funeral because he had thought that it would make everything so official, but now he had thought that it was the one and same –Astrid was already buried underneath, so it was already official. "Listen, Astrid…I want to thank you", Hiccup laughed awkwardly and looked at his fingers that were nervously playing with the fabric of his shirt. "Your advice really helped me."

Hiccup wasn't sure why he kept a silence for some brief seconds –as if he was waiting for an answer from his friend. He stared at the gravestone and swallowed down the sob that was stuck in his throat. This felt too stupid and miserable to be true –he was actually sitting in front of his best friend's grave and talking to her. It felt unreal.

"I miss you." With that, hell broke loose. Hiccup couldn't hold back the sobs anymore, he felt like he would choke if he tried. So he just let them come, and for many minutes he was unable to do anything else but to cry. It felt good to cry again, to cry properly at least. Hiccup hadn't cried this openly since the day Astrid's mother had called him.

"Astrid", Hiccup managed to say between the sobs and whines, "what am I supposed to do?" Once again there was a silence as if he was waiting for an answer, but never got any. The boy then tried to wipe away the tears from his cheeks, but more kept coming. "I can't go to school without you. I won't survive!"

Hiccup kept crying for ten more minutes before he slowly calmed down –or maybe he stopped crying because there simply were no more tears to give- and started to take a hold of himself. "Do you…Do you think I should go look for Jack?" he asked then, studying the gravestone. It was a beautiful one, clearly Astrid's parents had chose from the expensive ones. "I really like him."

Hiccup looked down and realized he had made a mistake. He understood that Jack had kept some secrets from him only because he had wanted to protect the boy. Hiccup knew it –he knew that Jack hadn't meant any harm. How was the spirit supposed to know that Astrid would die? "I miss him, Astrid." Hiccup's voice was merely a whisper anymore. He really wanted to see Jack again –hear him laugh and feel his cold touch on his freckled skin. Hiccup already missed the spirit's snow white hair and sky blue eyes –and the guy had only been gone for twelve hours. How would he survive any longer?

Suddenly a small bird landed to the top of the gravestone. It gave a few chirps that drew Hiccup back to the moment from his thoughts. They stared at each other, Hiccup and the bird. Great, now Hiccup felt like Snow White. He sighed and watched how the bird tilted its small head as it seemed to study Hiccup's green eyes –and the boy with auburn hair couldn't stop the smile that slowly found its way to the teen's lips. It was as if Astrid had sent him a note that she had heard Hiccup's questions and that the girl was aware of that the boy was sitting in front of her.

The silence that had landed between the boy and the small bird was quickly broken as said bird gave a few short and sharp –rather panicked- chirps before it flew away –only seconds before Hiccup heard a familiar voice come from behind him.

"I was expecting to see you here." Hiccup froze, his breath hitching. He watched how Pitch walked to the gravestone and placed a flower on top of it, giving the stone a gentle pat before the man turned his eyes to his student. Hiccup felt a wave of disgust wash over him and he felt an urge to yell at the man, tell him that he had no right to get anywhere near Astrid's grave –because even if Hiccup might have been mad at Jack, he knew that the Guardian wouldn't lie to him: Pitch was a bad guy, Hiccup could feel the bad vibes coming from the man. And Hiccup felt small and vulnerable under his teacher's eyes.

"So sorry to hear about Astrid", Pitch said before he walked to Hiccup and sat down next to the boy, sending cold chills down the teen's spine. Who had given him the right to sit there? Who had given him the right to tell him he was sorry? Hiccup wanted to tell the black haired man with horribly pale skin that it was _his _fault that Astrid lied under the ground in the first place, but he managed to keep his cool as he wiped away the now dried tears from the corners of his eyes.

Hiccup didn't say anything, so Pitch shut up also. So there they sat, the student and the teacher –if you could call Pitch a teacher anymore, now that Hiccup knew his true form. Hiccup was stuck between deciding whether he should run or stay firmly put –as much as he wanted to make sure he wouldn't follow Astrid to wherever the girl was right now by running away and returning to his apartment, locking the door and the windows, Hiccup felt like it was his duty to stay. Almost as if if he left, Pitch would do something to the grave. So he just sat there, determined of not to go anywhere before Pitch would. And besides, he couldn't show the guy that he _knew _by running away. It would be risky.

"Tell me, Hiccup", Pitch suddenly said, loud and clear, and Hiccup shivered at how his name almost rolled out of the man's mouth, "I couldn't help but to overhear you talking to…" Pitch kept a pause and nodded towards the gravestone, "Astrid." Hiccup felt his eye twitch at how Pitch's tone was almost mocking –as if Hiccup was crazy, talking to his dead friend. And not only that, but also Pitch had admitted that he had been eavesdropping on Hiccup!

"Yeah?" Hiccup asked, trying to keep his voice as normal as possible, not show how annoyed he was with the man's presence.

"Who is this Jack you were talking about?"

Shit. Hiccup's eyes widened and his breath hitched again –and he cursed that because he was sure that there was no way Pitch wouldn't have noticed it. "He…uh…" Why did the man ask that, acting as if he didn't know Jack already? "He's…a friend of mine", Hiccup finally finished and kept his eyes locked on the gravestone. He didn't want to look at Pitch, he didn't want to see the man's look, he didn't want to show him how scared he actually was –but he felt like Pitch sensed it. Because the man placed a hand to his shoulder and hummed.

"Did you two get into a fight?" he asked, and Hiccup noticed how the man seemed to enjoy the word "fight" –Hiccup was maybe scared, but he wasn't deaf or stupid.

"Uh…" Yes, it was getting terrible. Hiccup felt the panic rise from his chest. He tried to wiggle his shoulder around a bit to message the guy that the hand didn't belong there, but Pitch acted as if he didn't understand the hint –instead, he gripped the shoulder, stopping Hiccup from moving it. "T-that's not-"

"You can tell me, you know." And Hiccup froze, completely. His body froze, his mind froze. He didn't know what to do; Pitch voice was surprisingly quiet, almost…_sad._ Hiccup found himself thinking that maybe Jack _did _lie to him –after all, Pitch had been Hiccup's teacher for a whole year and not even once had Hiccup felt like he had been in danger.

And before Hiccup could push that thought away, telling himself that because of that same man that had been his quite strict teacher, Astrid was dead, his mouth opened and words left it without the teen even meaning it to happen. "I got mad at him and told him to leave and now I miss him."

In an instant Pitch's hand was gone and Hiccup felt like his energy was sucked out of him. Was it just him or had Pitch done that on purpose to get Hiccup speak? "I see."

Fuck, fuck, _no_. Hiccup screamed inside his head and mentally slapped himself. No! Why did he say that? Why?! He hadn't meant to! Pitch was literally the last person he wanted to talk to about his and Jack's fight. But why did Hiccup feel so good when Pitch asked him to tell the man everything –and more importantly, why did he feel so good to talk about it? About how Jack had kept the truth from him and how mad Hiccup had felt about it?

Why did it feel so good to see Pitch smile sweetly at him –Hiccup had finally had the courage to look at the man-?

"My, my", the man said with a 'tsk', "doesn't sound like a good friend."

Hiccup bit his lip. At what point had he turned from a scared student to a teacher's pet –if you could call this by that. "Friends don't keep secrets from each other." Hiccup tried to avoid Pitch's intimate gaze –a gaze that was getting _quite _uncomfortable as Pitch had been staring at him for so long. "Maybe you should just forget him", the black haired man then added with a low voice.

"_Ding ding ding"_, told the alarm inside Hiccup's head. In a flash he remembered Jack's serious voice as the white haired boy had told him that Pitch's agenda with the "draw something that exists" was to stop Hiccup from believing. Was this about that, too?

Hiccup swallowed. "I think I need to go", he said hurriedly and stood up, feeling a bit dizzy –perhaps because of the speed he stood up with, perhaps because of the fear that he was feeling. Fear that he was feeling for both his and Jack's safety –Hiccup remembered how at some point Jack had told him that he would vanish if everyone on Earth would stop believing in him. And Hiccup didn't want that.

"What's the rush?" Pitch asked, looking at Hiccup –not even bothering to stand up.

"I, uh, my cat's waiting", Hiccup stuttered and didn't wait for Pitch's reply before he fled towards the gate –he never run, but his steps were so quick he was scared he would trip on his own legs.

As Pitch watched Hiccup go, he hummed to himself in amusement before standing up and heading towards the exact opposite direction, to a huge tree that was in the middle of the graveyard with benches around it.

On the other side of the tree, on one of those benches, sat Jack Frost, deep in his thoughts about what had happened between him and Hiccup. Because of his back towards the tree and face towards the opposite direction of where Hiccup and Pitch had been at only moments ago, he was not aware that his human friend had been only meters away from him –nor was he aware of the Nightmare King that was approaching him. He only noticed Pitch when the man's hand touched his shoulder with a light brush.

Jack immediately jumped up and backed away a few steps, pointing his staff at the person who had surprised him. Once he saw that it was Pitch, his grip on the staff only tightened. "What are _you _doing here?" he hissed.

Pitch only laughed and looked at Jack. "I just came to say hello to Astrid."

Jack's eyes narrowed in disgust. How dare he?! "Don't go near her g-"

"I also saw Haddock", Pitch rudely interrupted Jack, causing the spirit to freeze as the human teen's name was mentioned.

"What?"

"He seemed to be upset."

"Don't you get near him!" Jack yelled and did his best not to shoot ice at the other –he knew that Pitch wanted that. He knew that Pitch was teasing him.

"Oh Jack", Pitch smiled, "Hiccup is really mad at you. I don't think you have any chances with him anymore."

Jack felt his heart break a bit. He knew that he shouldn't react, that Pitch was lying, but he couldn't help it. As soon as Pitch mentioned Hiccup being mad at him, Jack felt sadness fill himself. Ever since getting kicked out by Hiccup, Jack had tried to keep himself together –failing miserably. He had asked for an advice from the Moon and had got nothing, which had made him even more desperate –he needed to get back to Hiccup. He couldn't leave the boy! But the spirit had understood that Hiccup would need his time, so he had left for that one night –and obviously it had been a huge mistake as Pitch had now approached the spirit's friend.

As Jack said nothing, Pitch continued. "You're so naïve, Frost", he said with a half mocking, half disgusted voice, "falling in love with a human."

"You know nothing about that", Jack said from between his teeth. How dare Pitch tell him that he was naïve! How dare he tell him that he didn't have chances –Hiccup liked him back, right? But Jack found himself quietly agreeing with Pitch in the back of his head –Hiccup was mortal, after all. "You can't separate us, no matter how hard you try." Jack was getting _really _pissed. With killing Astrid Pitch obviously tried to break the only contact Jack had had in a long while –and so make the winter spirit vulnerable and weak. But Jack couldn't buy that!

"I'm not the one separating you two", Pitch sang, "you are doing it on your own."

"Shut up!"

"Hiccup won't take you back anymore."

Jack gritted his teeth and tried to calm down his rapidly beating heart. "Shut. Up!"

Pitch only smirked as he looked straight at Jack's eyes, causing the spirit to find himself being somewhat powerless. "You're afraid, Jack. I can see it."

"Don't-"

"You're afraid you'll lose him."

"I will not lose him!" Jack was _this _close to attack the King of Nightmares.

"You're afraid he will stop believing."

"He won't!"

"Oh", Pitch snorted, "but I think he will."

This is where Jack lost his temper. In a quick flash ice was shot at Pitch –only to hit an empty spot. Jack heard laughing from behind his back and he turned around, face filled with rage. Pitch wasn't there anymore, so Jack just yelled at thin air. "Don't you dare lay your dirty fingers on him, you hear me?!"

"You're late, Jack." The laughing continued even though Pitch was nowhere to be seen. "It has already begun."

* * *

**A/N: **Uuuu, (semi) cliff hanger for you guys~ eue

I'm sure I'm not the only one who had _that _chair where you just place your clothes to instead of actually sitting on it! :D I am? Oh okay.

Anyways wow Pitch sure is taking bitchiness into a whole new level.

Also; I like Stoick, so I wanted him to be a good guy once in a while uwu

**EDIT: **Yeeeah I figured I could also put this here, since 9/10 of you aren't reading my DTMG fic and most likely won't visit my profile page...So, here goes:

I'm **on hiatus** until the end of June because I'm travelling and so I can't update before I return home. Patience~ (more details about the updating dates on my profile ok) uwu


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